An Investigation of the Association between Steady Magnetospheric Convection and CIR Stream Interfaces

Recently a correlation between steady magnetospheric convection (SMC) events and stream interfaces at the center of corotating interaction regions (CIR) has been found. SMC are more likely to occur between one day before (-1) and one day after (+1) a stream interface. A minimum in SMC events occurs -3 to -1.5 days before a stream interface. However, the typical solar wind parameters during these SMC events are much higher than the average expected on the basis of previous studies. This result was obtained using THEMIS data, which has only been in operation since 2007, yet our list of stream interfaces goes back to 1995. We will expand our dataset using Geotail data to include SMC events from 1995 to 2009, and we will see if this association between stream interfaces and SMC, and the tendency towards higher values of solar wind parameters, is present in the longer dataset. "Steady" implies balanced reconnection between day- and nightside. We searched THEMIS data for evidence of fast flow channels returning flux from the nightside to the dayside reconnection region, obtaining inconclusive results. With our expanded dataset and Geotail data, we will search for more flows during these SMC events, including flows near the low latitude boundary layer (LLBL).