When investigating solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, it is important to understand how the solar wind, and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) frozen into it, behaves as it reaches the Earth. Magnetic reconnection, for example, is a phenomenon whose morphology is governed by the IMF orientation and wields a large influence over many of the processes occurring within the magnetosphere. Exploiting nearly a decade of spacecraft data, primarily from ESA's Cluster mission and NASA's ACE mission, the three studies presented in this thesis aim to help improve the specification of the IMF at the magnetopause.