Thin current sheet in the lunar distant magnetotail

The magnetotail current sheet is the key element of the substrom dynamics. Spatial scale (thickness) and current density magnitude of such current sheets determine their stability and properties of the magnetic reconnection. Ion kinetic scale current sheet (with the thickness about ion thermal gyroradius) are widely observed in the near-Earth magnetotail, where such thin current sheets are formed during the substorm growth phase. In this presentation we demonstrate that similar thin current sheets are often observed in the middle tail, around the lunar distance. We use ARTEMIS plasma and magnetic field measurements to collect a statistics of thin current sheets observed during vertical flapping oscillations. We show that current density magnitudes in these thin current sheets may exceed 10nA/m2, whereas a typical current sheet thickness is about thermal ion gyroradius. We also discuss how observations of such thin current sheets on the lunar distant magnetotail change our understanding of the magnetotail current sheet configuration.