COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ACTIVE REGIONS OF STRONG PROTON FLARES

Common characteristics of nine active regions with strong proton flare s in the 22nd solar activity cycle have been presented. Results show t hat the typical morphology of these active regions is a delta-type sun spot with a single multiple structure, in which there are many umbras with different magnetic polarities, packed tightly by a single penumbr a. In these active regions, the rotating directions of the sunspot gro ups are nearly independent of their position on the solar disk. When t he angle of rotation approaches the positive or the negative maximum, proton flares may occur in these active regions. After proton flares, sunspot groups rotate in the inverse direction because of the slack in the flux rope.