Three units of neutron detectors and four blocks of gamma-ray spectrometers have been installed and started operation at Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, CASLEO (San Juan, Argentina; coordinates 31 S, 69 W; height of 2550 m; the rigidity of geomagnetic cutoff of R c = 9.7 GV) in May 2015 as part of the scientific cooperation between the Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia), Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (San Paulo, Brazil) and Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, CASLEO (San Juan, Argentina). Measurements with the new detectors greatly supplement the experimental data on variations in the charged component of cosmic rays obtained by the CARPET ground-based cosmic ray detector in 2006. The first results from a joint analysis of new experimental data are presented. Particular attention is given to growing cosmic ray fluxes associated with changes in the surface electric field. The main characteristics of the events recorded in January 2016 are presented.

The international space experiment PAMELA was started in the mid-2006 and was finished in the beginning of 2016. The main objective of the experiment was the study of the cosmic ray spectra and elemental composition (including antiproton and positron spectra) in a wide energy range. The main instrument of the PAMELA device is a spectrometer including several detectors. Since the case in point here is the technique of processing the results for high-energy particles (protons, α-particles with energies E ≥ 50 GeV/nucleon, electrons and positrons with E ≥ 50 GeV), the three detectors were mostly used in data processing: a tracker placed into a dc magnetic field, a calorimeter, and a neutron detector. A relatively simple technique for separating electrons and positrons from the total flux of charged particles arriving at the spectrometer and a technique for determining the energy of these particles and constructing their energy spectra are described. This paper is based on the results presented in [1].

A compact new neutron detector based on SNM-18 neutron counters is described. The first results obtained in ground-based neutron flux measurements are discussed. An array of several such detectors can provide experimental data for investigating high-energy phenomena on the Sun and dynamic processes in the Earth’s atmosphere.