The dissipation of hydromagnetic surface waves

When hydromagnetic surface waves travel along a surface with a thin but finite boundary layer, velocities within this layer become singular when computed according to the ideal MHD equations. The present paper computes the corresponding rate of wave damping. Sufficiently weak surface waves are dissipated either by a resonant conversion into kinetic Alfven waves or by viscosity. Astrophysically important surface waves may involve such large velocity amplitudes outside the narrow zone of linear dissipation that nonlinear phenomena limit the singularity and the method of dissipation. Even these, however, are confined to extremely narrow layers.