On December 5, 1986, high-latitude magnetometer stations in Greenland, as well as Iqaluit and the South Pole, showed a strong perturbation lasting for about 10 min beginning at 0930 UT in an otherwise quiet period. A pair of field aligned currents separated in the east-west sense and moving westward (tailward) at 4--5 km/s is consistent with the data, producing a twin vortex pattern of Hall currents. Similar perturbations, but with reduced intensity, were also recorded on the afternoon side of Svalbard, Heiss Island, and several locations in northern Siberia. The perturbation was also observed with the incoherent scatter radar at Sondrestrom, these data agreeing with the twin vortex pattern. The perturbation was accompanied by auroral forms overhead at Sondrestrom that also traveled westward. Meridian scanning photometer recordings at the radar site showed the cleft, located about 3¿ to 5¿ poleward in latitude; the cleft did not move from the far northern sky for several hours, even while the disturbance was observed. Viking and Polar Bear satellites passed just before the disturbance over Greenland and DMSP encountered the disturbance near Baffin Island a few minutes later; these spacecraft observations increased our confidence in the interpretation of the data. ISEE 1/2 and IMP 8 recorded a magnetic disturbance in the solar wind, the likely cause of this event. Similar observations by others have been associated with flux transfer events. However, since the observed event occurred on closed field lines, our interpretation is quite different; it is that an impulsive penetration of solar wind plasma on an interplanetary magnetic flux tube took place through the magnetopause, ending up in the low latitude boundary layer. Some efficient mechanism is required to feed the boundary layer with the total amount observed. Other events reported in the literature may have a similar explanation. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1989