The location of cusp aurora during northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions and the solar wind control of that location are explored. The cusp aurora is imaged by the Imager for Magnetopause‐to‐Aurora Global Exploration's (IMAGE) Far Ultraviolet Instrument (FUV). Predicted locations of the cusp aurora were computed by assuming anti‐parallel reconnection between the observed IMF orientation and the 1996 Tsyganenko model magnetopause magnetic field. While the majority of anti‐parallel reconnection sites tailward of the cusp, when mapped to the ionosphere, coincide with the observed cusp aurora, the anti‐parallel merging hypothesis cannot explain certain aspects of the observations, including its location dependence with IMF + By.
