Abstract
We present statistical analysis of 16,903 current sheets (CS) observed
over 641 days aboard Ulysses spacecraft at 5 AU. We show that the
magnetic field rotates across CSs through some shear angle, while only
weakly varies in magnitude. The CSs are typically asymmetric with
statistically different, though only by a few percent, magnetic field
magnitudes at the CS boundaries. The dataset is classified into about
90.6\% non-bifurcated and 9.4\%
bifurcated CSs. Most of the CSs are proton kinetic-scale structures with
the half-thickness of non-bifurcated and bifurcated CSs within
respectively 200–2,000 km and 500–5,000 km or
0.5–$5\lambda_{p}$ and
0.7–$15\lambda_{p}$ in units of local proton
inertial length. The amplitude of the current density, mostly parallel
to magnetic field, is typically within 0.05–0.5 nA/m$^{2}$ or
0.04–$0.4J_{A}$ in units of local Alfv\’{e}n
current density. The CSs demonstrate approximate scale-invariance with
the shear angle and current density amplitude scaling with the
half-thickness, $\Delta
\theta\approx
16.6^{\circ}\;(\lambda/\lambda_{p})^{0.34}$
and $J_0/J_{A}\approx
0.14\;(\lambda/\lambda_{p})^{-0.66}$.
The matching of the magnetic field rotation and compressibility observed
within the CSs against those in ambient solar wind indicate that the CSs
are produced by turbulence, inheriting thereby its scale-invariance and
compressibility. The estimated asymmetry in plasma beta between the CS
boundaries is shown to be insufficient to suppress magnetic reconnection
through the diamagnetic drift of X-line, but magnetic reconnection is
probably suppressed by other processes. The presented results will be of
value for future comparative analysis of CSs observed at different
distances from the Sun.