Inter-hemispheric asymmetry of dependence of the cusp location on dipole tilt during northward IMF conditions

Abstract

A data set of the Cluster cusp crossings over a 5-year period is studied for the interhemispheric comparison of the dipole tilt angle effect on the latitude of the mid-altitude cusp. The result shows that the dipole tilt angle has a clear control of the cusp latitudinal location. Although, the northern cusp moves 0.054° ILAT for every 1° increase in the dipole tilt angle at the mean altitude of 5.2 RE, the southern cusp moves 0.051° ILAT for every 1° increase in the dipole tilt angle at the mean altitude of 6.6 RE. The northern cusp dependence agrees with the trend formed by other observations of different satellites for different altitudes, whereas the southern cusp does not. We therefore suggest that there is an inter-hemispheric difference in the dipole tilt angle dependence of cusp, latitudinal location, which has an impact on other observations of different satellites in different altitudes.