On the current sheets surrounding dipolarizing flux bundles in the magnetotail: The case for wedgelets

Abstract

Using Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms observations from four tail seasons, we study the three‐dimensional structure of the dipolarization front current sheet (DFCS), which demarcates the magnetic boundary of a dipolarizing flux bundle (DFB, the strong magnetic field region led by a dipolarization front) in Earth's magnetotail. An equatorial cross section of the DFCS is convex; a meridional cross section is consistent with a dipolarized field line. The equatorial flow pattern in the ambient plasma ahead of the DFCS exhibits diversions of opposite sense on its evening and morning sides. The magnetic field perturbations are consistent with local field‐aligned current generation of region‐2 sense ahead of the front and region‐1 sense at the front. The median thickness of the DFCS increases from 800 to 2000 km with increasing distance from the neutral sheet, indicating bundle compression near the neutral sheet. On a meridional cross section, DFCS's linear current density (1.2–1.8 nA/m) peaks ~±0.55 l from the neutral sheet (where l is the ambient cross‐tail current sheet half‐thickness, l ~1.5 RE in our database). This peak, reminiscent of active‐time cross‐tail current sheet bifurcation noted in past studies, suggests that the intense but thin DFCS (10 to 20 nA/m2) may be produced by redistribution (diversion) of the extended but weaker cross‐tail current (~1 nA/m2). Near the neutral sheet, the average DFCS current over the dipolarization front (DF) thickness is perpendicular to both the magnetic field interior to the DFB and the average field direction over the DF thickness. Away from the neutral sheet, the average current becomes progressively parallel to the internal field and the average field direction. The average current directions are indicative of region‐1‐sense field‐aligned current on the DF. As few as approximately three DFBs can carry sufficient total current that, if redirected into the auroral ionosphere, can account for the substorm current wedge's peak current for a sizable substorm (~1 MA). A collapsing DFB could thus be an elemental substorm current wedge, or “wedgelet,” that can divert a sizable portion of the cross‐tail current into the auroral ionosphere.