Views of the northern hemisphere auroral distribution obtained by the Viking satellite present a qualitative means of inferring the convective patterns which occur during interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz northward. The approach is taken whereby upward field-aligned currents are assumed to be coincident with large-scale discrete auroral features and on this basis possible convective patterns are deduced. While the patterns are not unique solutions, they are found to be consistent with merging theory predictions. That is, for Bz northward the auroral observations support the possibility of three and/or four cell patterns. When the IMF azimuthal angle is 90¿ (270¿), a clockwise (anticlockwise) cell is found to be located in the polar region between the two standard viscous cells. When Bx dominates and is in a foward orientation, convection stagnates, whereas if Bx is negative, a four-cell pattern may form with sunward flow at very high latitudes. The concept of using global auroral images as an additional tool when developing convection models could prove to be necessary in order to extend beyond the few isolated measurements taken ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990