Large-Scale Rossby Waves in Rotating Space and Astrophysical Plasmas

Abstract

The theory of large-scale flows of rotating incompressible totally ionized plasma is developed taking into account the Hall effect in the beta-plane approximation for the Coriolis force. In the process, the Coriolis force is taken into account for each plasma component. In the beta-plane approximation, the Coriolis force expressed in the local Cartesian coordinate system attached to a fixed point on the sphere becomes inhomogeneous and, as a consequence, leads to the beta-effect for both the equation of motion and the equation governing the electromagnetic field. Linear flows are analyzed in the quasi-two-dimensional approximation. It is demonstrated that a new type of flows, an electron Rossby wave, appears in a rotating totally ionized plasma on a sphere in addition to the hydrodynamic Rossby waves of a neutral fluid. The inhomogeneity of the vertical component of the angular velocity of rotation on a sphere plays the role of the restoring force for such waves.