Geotail Data Archive at NASA/GSFC

Its primary objective is to study the dynamics of the Earth's magnetotail over a wide range of distance, extending from the near-Earth region (8 Earth radii (Re) from the Earth) to the distant tail (about 200 Re). The GEOTAIL spacecraft was designed and built by ISAS and was launched on July 24, 1992.

The Geotail mission measures global energy flow and transformation in the magnetotail to increase understanding of fundamental magnetospheric processes. This will include the physics of the magnetopause, the plasma sheet, and reconnection and neutral line formation (i.e., the mechanisms of input, transport, storage, release and conversion of energy in the magnetotail). See: pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/geotail/geotail_key_parameters.html for a list of key parameters measured by the Geotail instruments.