Bifurcated Current Sheet Structure in a Quiet Time by Cluster Spacecrafts

We analyse the vertical structure of the magnetotail current sheet for two time intervals during which the Cluster spacecrafts crossed the neutral sheet in a quiet time. In the intervals, the current sheet moved slowly, and the value of the AE index was relatively small, about 40–130 nT. We find two examples of current sheets, with the current density maximum at the magnetic equator (Bx = 0), as well as an example of off-centre or bifurcated current sheets. In the quiet time, without any fast plasma flow and without significant flapping motion, we also directly observed the bifurcated current sheet. The bifurcated current sheet is probably associated with instabilities in the current sheet. These may be important for researching the mechanism of current sheet bifurcation.