Correlation of high latitude tropospheric pressure with the structure of the interplanetary magnetic field

Abstract

In the past decade there has developed a body of circumstantial evidence suggesting that terrestrial meteorology is influenced by plasma and magnetic field properties of the solar wind. In this paper we shall present evidence which strongly suggests that variations in surface pressure at high latitude stations ringing the Gulf of Alaska are correlated with changes in direction of the interplanetary magnetic field. We shall also present evidence that the changes in surface pressure may depend on whether the interplanetary magnetic field changes from pointing sunward to pointing antisunward or vice versa. We shall discuss the role that the magnetospheric electric field, which is heavily modulated by the interplanetary magnetic field, may play in influencing processes which lead to changes in terrestrial weather patterns.