In connection with flares, coronal shock waves and CMEs, solar particles are accelerated to very high energies, so that it takes them less than one hour to arrive at the Earth orbit. These particles are focused in the interplanetary magnetic field which works as a huge magnetic lens. Extremely narrow beams of high-energy protons and associated quasi-circumesolar coronal shock waves on the Sun were observed for the first time with ERNE and EIT instruments onboard SOHO.
The measuring of the energy spectra of the anomalous components of helium, nitrogen, and oxygen has proven that peak intensities are at the same level as two solar cycles ago (1977), but significantly higher than one cycle ago (1986), thus strengthening the hypothesis of a 22-year modulation cycle.
