ION-ACOUSTIC-WAVES IN THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE

A model for ion-acoustic waves in the solar atmosphere is presented. I n the limit of strongly magnetized plasma this model leads to the Zakh arov-Kuznetsov equation which possesses a flat solitary wave solution. An initial-value problem for this equation is solved numerically to s how a transition of the flat solitary waves into spherical solitary wa ves. The paper suggests further developments of an ion-acoustic wave t heory that may improve our knowledge of ion-acoustic waves and lead to the possibility of their being detected in the solar atmosphere.