Proton spectra detected by the proton switches on the CRRES satellite

A thorough detector characterization method is described and applied to ana lyze the data from the proton switches flown on the Combined Release and Ra diation Effects Satellite (CRRES). The results are compared with the CRRESP RO model based on observations of the proton telescope (PROTEL), which was on board the same satellite. A general good agreement is observed at positi ons where the flux of high energy protons is low. In regions of harder prot on spectra, the CRRESPRO fluxes are higher than those deduced from the prot on switches data. One possible explanation for this discrepancy may be that high energy protons penetrating into the PROTEL detector ly accounted for.