Abstract
Observations made by the Viking spacecraft above the auroral oval in the postmidnight to pre-noon local time sector are used to study how the various magnetospheric plasma regimes project to the polar ionosphere. Under specific consideration is the projection of the lowlatitude boundary layer (LLBL). In the present study the term LLBL will be used to designate the total magnetospheric boundary region adjacent to the magnetopause and it only excludes the part connected to the tail lobes (plasma mantle, high-latitude boundary layer). It is shown that the ionospheric projection of the LLBL has a much wider extent both in latitude and MLT as previously assumed. Furthermore, during quiet geomagnetic conditions the LLBL plasma flow drives the large-scale downward field-aligned current (R1 current) on the morning side. It is only during disturbed periods that processes associated with the inner magnetospheric tail or internal tail boundary layers have a major impact on the dawn to pre-noon auroral oval.
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