A study of the reflection of Alfv¿n waves at a horizontally inhomogeneous ionosphere has been carried out. In this study, the Alfv¿n speed above the ionosphere is assumed to be uniform and the ionosphere is treated as a height-integrated conducting slab. Analytical and numerical results indicate that the horizontal nonuniformity of the ionospheric conductivity can lead to a rotation of the reflected wave fields and cause field-aligned currents that originate in the ionosphere. A strong conductivity nonuniformity in the direction perpendicular to the incident wave field, large Hall to Pedersen conductivity ratios, and low conductivity values lead to a large rotation of the reflected wave field in the range from a few to 40¿. The implications of the theoretical results for some ionospheric phenomena are presented, including comments on the Harang discontinuity and Sun-aligned arcs. ¿American Geophysical Union 1993