Reflection Coefficient for Two‐Dimensional Propagation of Fast Magnetosonic Waves Emerging One‐Dimensional Mesoscale Density Boundaries

Abstract

In recent studies, two‐dimensional propagation model of fast magnetosonic (MS) waves has been proposed to interpret the satellite observations of MS waves knocking into a density boundary. Although the theoretical model is able to capture the main properties of the two‐dimensional propagation of MS waves, quantitative description about the MS wave behaviors has not been given yet. Here, with the assumption of a parabolic function for the potential function near its minimum, we solve the wave equation only with a potential function to obtain the reflection coefficients. It is found that the wave equation with a potential function can describe the full reflection and full transmission of MS waves rather well. Furthermore, the first‐order derivative term in the wave equation is utilized to modify the reflection coefficient when the minimum of the potential function is near zero. Our result is helpful for further understanding the two‐dimensional propagation of MS waves.