Seeking short-term increases in the heavy-nucleus flux of cosmic rays from the data of measurements on Prognoz spacecraft

A search is made for short-term increases in the cosmic-ray flux of predominantly heavy nuclei of energy E $\ge$500 MeV/nucleon from the data of measurements on the Prognoz-2 and Prognoz-3 spacecraft. These increases were recorded in the course of the first space flights by Soviet rockets, orbital spacecraft, and the Elektron and Molniya-1 satellites. No such increases were observed by the Prognoz spacecraft. Moreover, the increase on 2 January 1974, observed by the Molniya-1 spacecraft by a telescope consisting of scintillational and Cherenkov counters was not recorded by the analogous devices on the Prognoz-3 spacecraft. Therefore, the nature of the short-term increases in the heavy-nucleus flux remains an open question.