Slow magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar atmosphere

There is increasingly strong observational evidence that slow magnetoacoustic modes arise in the solar atmosphere, either as propagating or standing waves. Sunspots, coronal plumes and coronal loops all appear to support slow modes. Here we examine theoretically how the slow mode may be extracted from the magnetohydrodynamic equations, considering the special case of a vertical magnetic field in a stratified medium: the slow mode is described by the Klein-Gordon equation. We consider its application to recent observations of slow waves in coronal loops.