The radio and plasma wave detectors were used to detect radio explosions and shock waves associated with solar flares, usually during solar maximum. The cosmic ray detectors studied how the Sun and interplanetary medium influenced the spread of the same rays, of solar or galactic origin. The gradient of cosmic rays, as a function of distance from the Sun, was measured. These observations, combined with those made by "Pioneer11" between 1977 and 1980 on the outside of the solar system (12–23AU from the Sun) produced good modelling of this gradient. The GRBs "Helios-B" detector identified 18 events during the first three years of operation of the instrument, whose source can, for some, be identified with the help of searches made by satellites orbiting the Earth. Some features of the inner solar corona were measured during occultations. For this purpose, either a radio signal was sent from the spacecraft to Earth or the ground station sent a signal that was returned by the probe. Changes in signal propagation resulting from the solar corona crossing provided information on density fluctuations.