MHD simulations of the response of high-latitude potential patterns and polar cap boundaries to sudden southward turnings of the interplanetary magnetic field

3-D MHD simulations were used to investigate the behavior of the high-latitude convection and the polar cap variations during two events characterized by sudden southward IMF turnings. In agreement with recent observations the simulation results indicate that the convection pattern across the entire polar cap begins to change a few minutes after the arrival of the southward IMF. In contrast, the onset of the equatorward motion of the open closed field-line boundary depends on the local time, with equatorward motion of the midnight boundary delayed by about 20 minutes relative to the the onset of the boundary motion at noon. We interpret this delay as the time required to convect newly merged flux from the dayside to the nightside. We believe that these two different responses can reconcile apparent contradictions in studies of ionospheric reconfigurations in response to changes in the IMF.