PROMICS-3 is a plasma experiment flown in the Russian project Interball. It performs three-dimensional (3D) measurements of ions in the energy range 4 eV-70 keV with mass separation and of electrons in the energy range 12 eV-35 keV. The Interball project consists of two main satellites, the Tail Probe and the Auroral Probe, each with one subsatellite. The Interball Tail Probe was launched on 3 August 1995, into a 65°inclination orbit with apogee at about 30 R # . Both main satellites carry

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... ical PROMICS-3 instruments and thus direct comparisons of the particle distributions will be possible once the Auroral Probe is launched. Furthermore, PROMICS-3-Tail is the first instrument measuring the 3D ion distribution function in the magnetospheric boundary layers at high latitudes. In this paper we describe the PROMICS-3 instrument and show initial results from the Tail probe, measurements of the magnetosheath, plasma sheet, and ring current plasmas.