The nature of non-adiabatic wave propagation in a slender magnetic flux tube is explored. The results of the theory are compared with the observations of Giovanelli et al. (1978), and found to be in general agreement. Those observations, of tubes in the photosphere-chromosphere, show outwardly propagating waves, with periods of 300 s, which take some 19 s to propagate fiom one level of line formation to another level higher in the atmosphere. In sharp contrast to this, is the time of 7 s for a similar disturbance outside the tube to propagate between the same two levels of line formation, estimated to be some 600 km apart in the field-free atmosphere.
It is argued that the sharply contrasting propagation times for the tube and its environment is principally due to the elasticity of the tube and its subsequent propensity for propagation. A non-adiabatic disturbance may be essentially propagating within the tube but essentially non-propagating outside, with considerably slower phase speeds thus arising inside the tube.
The theory suggests that the observed disturbances are non-adiabatic, acoustic-gravity waves channelled along a magnetic flux tube and modulated by external pressure variations.