Time-dependent Petschek-type reconnection including moving shock waves and discontinuities in a compressible plasma is studied. Reconnection is initiated by a dissipative electric field pulse along a reconnection line and generates nonlinear perturbations propagating along an initial current sheet. The induced linear wave perturbations in the adjacent half-spaces are obtained analytically in the form of a convolution integral. The results are evaluated for typical dayside magnetopause parameters and presented for comparison with observations of dayside reconnection events. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union