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).
The paper describes the tasks, technical means and methods of information express analysis as well as experiment control in the stage of its implementation, including BROD reprogramming.
At present, wave measurements in the space plasma are one of the most important ways of studying plasma processes resulting from interaction between solar wind and the geomagnetosphere. Wave measurements made aboard some space vehicles usually included the measurement of electric and magnetic field spectra (by one component) within a range of frequencies from 5 Hz to plasma frequency of tens of kHz.