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A method for studying the behavior of fields by splitting their behavior into independent field modes is presented. The method is used to explore the characteristics of steady, two-dimensional, linearized magnetohydrodynamic fields with finite viscosity and resistivity and arbitrary orientation of the magnetic vector relative to the velocity vector. It is shown that in general boundary layers and wakes cease to exist in magnetohydrodynamics. Their place is taken by diffusing waves which, in reality, are the fields of a set of viscous-resistive sources, vortices, poles and currents whose field lines are strongly oriented along the characteristic wave directions. When the viscosity and resistivity are equal, these waves diffuse in a simple and independent way, but when these quantities are not equal, the diffusing waves generate a new kind of wake which is located, veil-like, in the fan-shaped region between the two wave directions. These wakes are fed from the differential diffusion of the primary waves. In the special case for which the resistivity is much greater than the viscosity, a new type of pseudo boundary layer is shown to exist in the velocity field. When the viscosity is much greater than the resistivity, this pseudo boundary layer occurs in the magnetic field.

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