Variations of the Heppner-Maynard Boundaries on Northern Hemisphere
Measured by SuperDARN During the Extremely Radial IMFs
Abstract
The Heppner-Maynard Boundary (HMB) represents the equatorward extent of
the ionospheric convection pattern and can be used as a proxy for the
low latitude of the auroral oval. We present a statistical study of the
radial interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) effects on the HMB midnight
latitude calculated from SuperDARN measurements between January 2002 and
December 2017. We found the average values of HMB midnight latitude
during both sunward and anti-sunward radial IMF are higher than 65.5º.
There is a negative correlation between the magnitude of Bx and HMB
midnight latitude, although this effect is not obvious. Moreover, the
seasonal variation of Bx-HMB correlation coefficients is different with
the existence of single lobe reconnection. At the anti-sunward radial
period, the correlation coefficient is up to 0.54 in wintertime. It
would be caused by the enhanced lobe reconnection rates, which related
to the special configuration between the solar-wind and magnetopause.
This is the first long-term statistical study focused on HMB during
radial IMF conditions in the context of solar
wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. The results suggest that the
effect of IMF Bx should not be ignored in the northern hemisphere
wintertime especially during the anti-sunward radial IMF conditions.