  The Earth's magnetotail is characterized by stretched magnetic field lines.
Energetic particles are effectively scattered due to the field-line curvature,
which then leads to isotropization of energetic particle distributions and
particle precipitation to the Earth's atmosphere. Measurements of these
precipitation at low-altitude spacecraft are thus often used to remotely probe
the magnetotail current sheet configuration. This configuration may include
spatially localized maxima of the curvature radius at equator (due to localized
humps of the equatorial magnetic field magnitude) that reduce the energetic
particle scattering and precipitation. Therefore, the measured precipitation
patterns are related to the spatial distribution of the equatorial curvature
radius that is determined by the magnetotail current sheet configuration. In
this study, we show that, contrary to previous thoughts, the magnetic field
line configuration with the localized curvature radius maximum can actually
enhance the scattering and subsequent precipitation. The spatially localized
magnetic field dipolarization (magnetic field humps) can significantly curve
magnetic field lines far from the equator and create off-equatorial minima in
the curvature radius. Scattering of energetic particles in these off-equatorial
regions alters the scattering (and precipitation) patterns, which has not been
studied yet. We discuss our results in the context of remote-sensing the
magnetotail current sheet configuration with low-altitude spacecraft
measurements.
