The solar wind control of the magnetopause shape is studied with amodel magnetopause that results from three sources of magnetic field.Onesource is the geomagnetic field produced by the Earth's dipole.Anotherresults from an image dipole placed in front of the magnetopause to producethe effect of the magnetopause current which limits the spatial extentof the geomagnetic field.The third is a southward interplanetary magneticfield(IMF)in the Earth's vicinity.With an image dipole strength and thelocation to account for the effect of the solar wind dynamic pressure(D(subscript p)),the shape of the model magnetopause can be regarded as controlled by D(subscript p)and the southward IMF.As an image dipole strength is about fourteen timesthe Earth's dipole and the location is at thirty times the Earth's radius,theshape of the model magnetopause is consistent with observational resultsfor a southward IMF.A comparison of the shape of the model magnetopauseand an empirical model by Shue et al.(1997)shows that the imagedipole strength at a fixed location correlates linearly with D(subscript p)for a southwardIMF.In addition,they agree qualitatively for high D(subscript p)and a southwardIMF.