The energy-based scaling of a thin current sheet: Case study.

The influence of average plasma energy E~ on the half thickness of a thin current sheet (TCS) is investigated for three cases of TCSs crossings. The value of was estimated from the magnetic field data by means of Cluster observations. The obtained scaling values for TCSs, Z~=ℓ/ρT, where is the thermal Larmor radius, were compared with the scaling Zμ=22E~/T, where E~ and are the average plasma energy and the temperature of plasma, which assumes a specific dynamics (conservation of magnetic flux through the trajectory segment) of the current carriers.