Response of the polar cap boundary and the current system to changes in IMF observed from the Magsat satellite in the southern hemisphere during summer

Abstract

The magnetic field vector residuals observed from the Magsat satellite have been used to obtain the dependence of the polar cap boundary and the current system on IMF for quiet and mildly disturbed conditions ( K p ⩽ 3 +). The study has been carried out for the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere. “Shear reversals” (SRs) in vector residuals indicative of the infinite current sheet approximation of the field-aligned currents (FACs) indicate roughly the polar cap boundary or the poleward boundary of the plasma sheet. This is also the poleward edge of the region 1 FACs. The SR is defined to occur at the latitude where the vector goes to minimum and changes direction by approximately 180°. It is found that SRs mainly occur when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) has a southward-directed B z - component and in the latitude range of about 70°–80°. SRs in the dusk sector occur predominantly when the azimuthal component B y is positive and in the dawn sector when B y is negative, irrespective of the sign of B z These results agree with the known merging process of IMF with magnetopause field lines. When SRs occur on both dawn and dusk sectors, the residuals over the entire polar cap are nearly uniform in direction and magnitude, indicating negligible polar currents. Similar behaviour is observed during highly disturbed conditions usually associated with large negative values of B z . Forty-one Magsat orbits with such SRs are quantitatively modelled for preliminary case studies of the resulting current distribution. It is found that SRs, in the plane perpendicular to the geomagnetic field, for the current vectors and the magnetic vector residuals (perturbations relative to the unperturbed field) occur at almost the same latitudes. The electrojet intensities range from 1.2 × 10 4 to 6.5 × 10 5 A (amperes). A preliminary classification of polar cap boundary crossings characterized by vector rotations rather than SRs also shows that they tend to occur mainly for negative B z .