On the association of predominant polarity of North-South component of IMF in the GSE system near 1 AU with solar polar magnetic fields during 1967–2020

•The variations of skewness of GSE latitudinal angle distribution of IMF (Sk) is studied for five sunspot cycles.•The polarity and magnitude of Sk show correlation with solar polar magnetic field variations.•The above parameter shows anti-correlation with sunspot activity changes.•Sk is found to be a good indicator of solar dipolar magnetic field. The skewness of the monthly distribution of GSE latitudinal angles of Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) observed near the Earth (Sk) is found to show anti-correlation with sunspot activity during the solar cycles 20–24. Sk can be considered as a measure of the predominant polarity of north-south component of IMF (Bz component) in the GSE system near 1 AU. Sk variations follow the magnitude of solar polar magnetic fields in general and polarity of south polar fields in particular during the years 1967–2020. Predominant polarity of Sk is found to be independent of the heliographic latitude of Earth. Sk basically reflects the variations of the solar dipolar magnetic field during a sunspot cycle. It is also found that IMF sector polarity variation is not a good indicator of the magnitude changes in solar polar magnetic fields during a sunspot cycle. This is possibly due to the influence of non-dipolar components of the solar magnetic field and the associated north-south asymmetries in the heliospheric current sheet.