The daily magnetic variations above 60 ≡ in magnetic latitude are studied by using records from the International Magnetospheric Study Alaska meridian chain of observatories. Several days with activity varying from moderate to distrubed are chosen to study day-to-day variations, namely, the daily variability of polar magnetic variations. The average daily magnetic field variations and the equivalent current pattern are also obtained by using the successive records between March 9 and April 27, 1978. They represent the distrubance condition on a moderately distrubed day (the average &Sgr;Kp value during this period was 230). The equivalent current pattern reveals clearly the large-scale features, in particular the so-called 'two-cell' pattern. Then, the distribution of the ionospheric currents and the field-aligned current are computed on the basis of the average daily magnetic field variations. It is shown that the computed ionospheric current distribution has little resemblance to the two-cell pattern. It is concluded that the main part of the ionospheric currents must be fed by field-aligned currents with a distribution similar to that inferred from Triad satellite data.