Abstract
The relaxation of anisotropic electron and ion temperatures in a multispecies magnetoactive plasma is studied with application of a magnetized kinetic equation derived earlier (Hassan and Watson, 1977). For small anisotropies in the electron temperature relaxation, the exchange of energy within the electrons between the components parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field direction determine the relaxation rate. In anisotropic ion temperature relaxation, the essential mechanism for relaxation is provided by energy transfer between ions and electrons. An expression for the relaxation rate perpendicular to the magnetic field is obtained.