Studies of cosmic ray variations with the help of the Elbrus spectrograph.

The soft-muon detector and the muon-neutron detector at the Elbrus cosmic-ray-measuring facility are described. The expected contribution of geomagnetic effects to various classes of cosmic-ray variations is estimated. Amplitudes and phases of the first harmonic of the solar-diurnal variation of cosmic rays are determined. Data on cosmic-ray modulation in interplanetary space are interpreted on the basis of a theory of fast-particle propagation in a moving magnetoplasma in the presence of additional scatterers, moving with a velocity that differs significantly from that of the background plasma.