Dayside Erosion During Intervals of Tenuous Solar Wind

We present six data examples where we infer erosion of the dayside magnetosphere during intervals of very tenuous solar wind (density < 1 cm^-3). The interplanetary observations were made by the Wind spacecraft when the average solar wind dynamic pressure P dyn and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) B_z were in the ranges (0.07, 0.62) nPa and (-7.6, -0.9) nT, respectively. The inner magnetospheric signature of erosion we focus on is a decrease in the strength of the geostationary magnetic field, as monitored by NOAA's GOES spacecraft. We obtain this decrease as a function of IMF B_z by comparing each event with a reference day, May 11, 1999. During the reference day the lowest P dyn of the set was attained (0.07 nPa), IMF B_z > 0, and the geomagnetic field at geostationary orbit was dipolar. The central point we make is that although compared to the reference day the P dyn in each event is higher, the strength of the geostationary field is weaker. We interpret this as evidence that the field compression due to P dyn has been overcome by the field depression due to erosion. Correcting empirically for the compression of the geostationary field due to solar wind dynamic pressure, we find that for the tenuous solar winds we consider the decrease of the geostationary field, Δ B_GS, is related to IMF B_z as Δ B_GS (nT)= -2.8 + 2.3 B_z (nT). This work is supported by NASA Living with a Star Grant NAG5-10883 and DARA grant 50 OC 8911 0.