During the postdawn period on August 28, 1978, from ~0750 to 0830 magnetic local time, the magnetopause moved several earth radii inward to less than 6.6 RE, where it remained until ~1120 MLT. As the magnetopause approached the earth, the poleward boundary of the westward auroral electrojet moved southward to geomagnetic latitudes less than 66¿. Fortuitously, the geostationary satellite GEOS 2 was located in this morning sector during this entire period, and experienced a series of magnetopause crossings. In quiet periods GEOS 2 was conjugate to that area of the lower E region which constituted the field-of-view of the Scandinavian Twin Auroral Radar Experiment (STARE) radars. This paper compares the magnetospheric satellite and ionospheric radar observations. The combined observations suggest that, near the dawnside magnetopause, large-scale merging was occurring, while in the ionosphere, the convection reversal region and poleward portion of the auroral zone underwent major equatorward shifts and featured prominent sunward moving ULF pulsations. Between the magnetopause and ionosphere a large increase in the ring current accompanied the equatorward shift of the convection reversal.