Initial results from Soviet unmanned magnetometer network in Antarctica

Abstract

During the last decade the unmanned magnetometer network across the southern polar cap along geomagnetic meridian 110°between corrected geomagnetic latitudes -75 and -89°has been successfully operated. Initial results of the analysis of geomagnetic variations for the austral summer of 1978-1979 have been obtained. The global features of the southern polar cap equivalent ionospheric current systems related to the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) are similar to the northern polar cap patterns. Scanning by the meridian magnetometer chain of the southern polar cap revealed a new peculiarities in the current systems related to the B_z and B_y components of the IMF. For the explanation of these peculiarities a new model of the field-aligned currents was speculated.