Abstract
Various empirical models of the magnetopause location have been proposed. They typically predict the shape and standoff distance of the magnetopause as a function of the solar wind dynamic pressure and Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field, which are found to be the two main controlling parameters.
Some other parameters, e.g., the dipole tilt angle, are sometimes further considered. In this work, we use the extensive data set consisting of nearly 50,000 magnetopause crossings encountered by the THEMIS A-E, Magion, Geotail, and Interball spacecraft to evaluate the accuracy of three widely used magnetopause models [Petrinec and Russell, 1996; Shue et al., 1997; Lin et al., 2010].
We discuss several possible ways of the aberration removal and effects of solar wind parameters omitted in the models (primarily the interplanetary magnetic field orientation), demonstrating their non-negligible influence on the magnetopause location.