The paper describes the instrument´s design, technique and some results of measurements of the main solar wind kinetic parameters, made aboard the Prognoz 8 satellite by a Soviet-Czechoslovak energy spectrometer. The aim of this experiment was to test the technique of shock wave detection through readings of the plasma instrument and to measure plasma parameters with high time resolution (up to 1.3 s).
A set of fourteen large-scale exposures of comet Bennett 1970 II between 1970 April 27 and 30 is evaluated. The solar wind velocity is determined for this period from the aberration angle of the plasma tail. Its radial component had a minimum valuo of 70-100 km/s in the comet's environment: 50° off the ecliptic at a distance of 1 AU from the Sun. This value is 3-4 times less than the satellite data recorded at the Earth's orbit. The two plasma kinks, visible on 1970 April 30 in the comet tail, moved from the nucleus at a mear. radial velocity of 81 and 76 km/s, respectively. No disconnection event appeared in the plasma tail.