A quantitative magnetospheric model derived from spacecraft magnetometer data

Abstract

The model is derived by making least squares fits to magnetic field measurements from four Imp satellites. It includes four sets of coefficients, representing different degrees of magnetic disturbance as determined by the range of Kp values. The data are fit to a power series expansion in the solar magnetic coordinates and the solar wind-dipole tilt angle, and thus the effects of seasonal north-south asymmetries are contained. The expansion is divergence-free, but unlike the usual scalar potential expansion, the model contains a nonzero curl representing currents distributed within the magnetosphere. The latitude at the earth separating open polar cap field lines from field lines closing on the day side is about 5 deg lower than that determined by previous theoretically derived models. At times of high Kp, additional high-latitude field lines extend back into the tail. Near solstice, the separation latitude can be as low as 75 deg in the winter hemisphere. The average northward component of the external field is much smaller than that predicted by theoretical models; this finding indicates the important effects of distributed currents in the magnetosphere.