Radiation from a spherical aperature antenna immersed in a compressible plasma

The exterior boundary-value problem for a sphere immersed in a compressible plasma medium is solved. The model is a perfectly conducting sphere excited by an aperture, in its surface, which has a specified distribution of the tangential electric field. The configuration is such that Maxwell's equations, when combined with the continuum theory of fluid dynamics, are separable. The sheath at the interface with the plasma is characterized by an absorptive boundary condition which assumes a linear relationship between the pressure and the mean velocity of the electrons. It is shown that the TM (transverse magnetic) waves are coupled with the electroacoustic waves, while the TE (transverse electric) waves are decoupled. Some numerical results are presented which show, in quantitative manner, the relative fraction of the total power which is radiated in the form of electroacoustic waves.