Abstract
An exact solution is given for the time‐development of a magnetic field in a two‐dimensional stagnation flow, with the field lines being in the plane of the flow and parallel to the stagnation plane. The solution is given for an arbitrary initial field, and several examples are discussed in detail. The flow tends to increase magnetic energy by stretching the field lines and also tends to accentuate spatial inhomogeneities of the field by compressing the length scale in a direction perpendicular to the stagnation plane. The results show that the combination of these two effects can lead to exceptionally high rates of dissipation of magnetic energy by Joule heating.

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