High-energy solar-particle events

Conclusion Recent high-energy solar-particle events have been illustrated and described individually. The manner in which the observations have been used to develop and test concepts of the hydromagnetic behaviour of the solar plasma in space has been outlined. Some of the events have been analyzed in more detail than hitherto. The results seem to support the concept that the magnetic field of a sunspot tends to erupt, or to balloon, into space in the form of a great tongue or sack attached to the sun near the sunspot. Supersonic shock processes also must be involved in the propagation of disturbances in planetary space, and the fluxes of galactic and of solar particles may change in the vicinity of such shocks, but alone shocks do not appear to be capable of explaining all the observed effects.