The fields for quiet days of 1976 and 1977 are studied for a line of observatories established near 76°E longitude in the Northern Hemisphere. Using a special spherical harmonic analysis (SHA) technique to separate the external and internal parts of the observed field changes when the geomagnetic activity index
Kp had low values, we demonstrate that a selection of SHA polynomials with (
n -
m) ≥ 1 serves to isolate the polar region field contributions. The equivalent external current representation of the polar fields (sometimes called
SqP) show two vortices separated by the day-night hemisphere boundary. When plotted in local time, the nighttime current patterns are usually observed to change positions to earlier locations when the IMF sector structure varied from the Toward (IMF
By negative) to the Away (IMF
By positive) direction (with respect to the Sun) of the arriving solar wind field at the magnetospheric boundary. The addition of these changing polar current patterns with the more stable lower-latitude
Sq (solar quiet-time) dynamo currents probably accounts for the previously reported sector effects in the
Sq. The technique of selective separation of polynomials shows that the
Sq could be adequately described by the SHA polynomial terms having (
n -
m) < 2 and that there persisted a small mid-latitude vortex of SHA polynomial (
n -
m) = 1 currents in winter. The polar region activity and the Southern Hemisphere
Sq vortex extension into the Northern Hemisphere had overshadowed the wintertime expression of the low amplitude
Sq vortex in the full-field daily variation records.
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