HMF sectors since 1926: Comparison of two ground-based data sets Original Research Article

In this paper, we compare two recent long-term data sets of daily HMF sector polarities since 1926 based on ground-based geomagnetic measurements: the combined data set by Echer and Svalgaard [Echer, E., Svalgaard, L. Asymmetry in the Rosenberg–Coleman effect around solar minimum revealed by wavelet analysis of the interplanetary magnetic field polarity data (1927–2002). Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, 12808, 2004] (ES data set) and a three-station data set derived by Vennerstroem et al. [Vennerstroem, S., Zieger, B., Friis-Christensen, E. An improved method of inferring interplanetary sector structure, 1905–present. J. Geophys. Res. 106 (15), 16011–16020, 2001] (VZF data set). The Rosenberg-Coleman rule is consistently valid in the ES data during the last 80 years, but fails in the VZF data set in the early cycles. There is a clear bias (T sector dominance) in the VZF data that is not observed in satellite measurements collected in the OMNI-2 data set, or in the ES data. Also, there is a difference on the success rates between the two sectors in the VZF data. Therefore, we conclude that the ES data set is more reliable, especially in cycles 16–18, in reproducing the HMF sector structure. Both data sets reproduce the southward shift of the heliospheric current sheet during the OMNI-2 interval. However, only the more reliable ES data set depicts this systematically also during the early cycles 16–18.