Cusp Region Field-Aligned Currents Measured in Conjugate Areas

The characteristics of impulsive magnetic field events which have been proposed as indicative of cusp-region field-aligned currents (and possibly of flux transfer events - FTEs) have been studied in conjugate regions. The data are for approximately six months in 1985. The results from South Pole Station, Antarctica, and Iqaluit, Northwest Territories, Canada, contain a preponderance of events that indicate current flow into, or out of, the ionosphere in both hemispheres. The currents can be established by a magnetopause reconnection process and/or by plasma being injected onto closed field lines.