Dayside erosion during intervals of tenuous solar wind

We present six data examples where we infer erosion of the dayside magnetos phere during intervals of very tenuous solar wind (density < 1 cm(-3)). The interplanetary observations were made by the Wind spacecraft when the aver age 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. respect ively. The inner magnetospheric signature of erosion we focus on is a decre ase in the strength of the geostationary magnetic field, as monitored by NO AA's GOES spacecraft. We obtain this decrease as a function of IMF Bz by co mparing 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 e vent is higher, the strength of the geostationary field is weaker. We inter pret this as evidence that the field compression due to P-dyn has been over come 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 g eostationary field, DeltaB(GS), is related to IMF B-z as DeltaB(GS) (nT)= - 2.8 + 2.3 B-z (nT).