Activity on the surface of the sun disturbs the solar wind. The solar activity increases and decreases in an 11-year cycle called the sunspot cycle. As activity increases, the flow of the solar wind becomes more disturbed and the magnetic field therefore becomes more complicated. As a result, the primary cosmic rays have more difficulty reaching the earth. Solar cosmic rays are produced by the sun during solar flares and other spectacular eruptions on the sun's surface.
Solar flares occur mainly during periods of high activity in the sunspot cycle.
Anomalous component cosmic rays develop from normal atoms in interstellar gas near the sun. Because they have no electric charge, the atoms pass freely through the solar wind and its magnetic field. Close to the sun, some atoms absorb so much energy from the sun's ultraviolet radiation that an electron leaves each of them. Because electrons carry a negative charge, each atom that loses an electron becomes a positive ion. Almost all ions produced in this manner are ions of hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and neon.