INFERRING GLOBAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CURRENT SHEET FROM LOCAL MEASUREMENTS

A new procedure to extract global characteristics of a current sheet based on local measurements of magnetic field, plasma, and current density from a single spacecraft is described. By adopting suitable current density profiles, this method permits an estimate of the following parameters: (1) the asymptotic magnetic field strength outside the current sheet, (2) the north-south thickness of the current sheet, (3) the spacecraft distance from the center of the current sheet, (4) the magnetic field line curvature at the center of the current sheet, (5) the volume current density at the center of the current sheet, (6) the integrated current density across the thickness of the current sheet, and (7) the kappa parameter used by many researchers in the study of particle orbits in a current sheet geometry.