The surflike auroral shape commonly associated with the westward traveling surge (WTS) is a remarkably repeatable feature of the polar auroral display. In this paper, we examine the details of one such form that is located on the poleward edge of the diffuse aurora. For this study, we have used the simultaneous imagery, high-resolution magnetic field, and charged particle measurements from the DMSP F7 spacecraft, acquired in the northern hemisphere on December 31, 1983. F7 is the latest of the DMSP series and the first to include a magnetic field experiment. A large-scale upward directed Birkeland current dominates across the entire form, colocated with precipitating electrons having spectra peaked from 3 to 12 keV. A pair of narrow (20 km) parallel arcs extend along the poleward edge of the auroral oval for a few hours in local times west of the surge. They appear to divege to higher and lower latitudes because of an intrusion of aurora from lower latitudes and later local times. In the center of the intrusion, the Birkeland current is directed upward and electrons exhibit accelerated spectra with a monoenergetic peak at 12 keV similar to spectra observed at much lower latitudes. Each of the two narrow arcs poleward and equatorward of the diffuse region is characterized by intense upward directed Birkeland currents, ''inverted V'' electrons with spectra peaked from 1 to 3 keV, and enhanced ion fluxes. Electron spectra in both arcs suggest that these particles are streaming earthward from the plasma-sheet boundary layer. Thus, the WTS appears to result from an expansion of the plasma sheet and and intrusion of the plasma-sheet boundary layer into the high-latitude tail lobe. These observations support the view that the WTS is related to a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the distant magnetotail. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1987