On the east–west longitudinally asymmetric distribution of solar proton events

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A large data set of 78 solar proton events observed near the Earth's orbit during 1996-2011 is investigated. An East-West longitudinal (azimuthal) asymmetry is found to exist in the distribution of flare sources of solar proton events. With the same longitudinal separation between the flare sources and the magnetic field line footpoint of observer, the number of the solar proton events originating from solar sources located on the eastern side of the nominal magnetic footpoint of observer is larger than the number of the solar proton events from solar sources located on the western side. We emphasize the importance of this statistical investigation in two aspects. On the one hand, this statistical finding confirms our previous simulation results obtained by numerically solving five-dimensional Fokker-Planck equation of solar energetic particle (SEP) transport. On the other hand, the East-West longitudinally (azimuthally) asymmetric distribution of solar proton events accumulated over a long time period provides an observational evidence for the effects of perpendicular diffusion on the SEP propagation in the heliosphere. We further point out that, in the sense of perpendicular diffusion, our numerical simulations and statistical results of SEP events confirm each other. We discuss in detail the important effects of perpendicular diffusion on the formation of the East-West azimuthal (longitudinal) asymmetry of SEP distribution in two physical scenarios, i.e., 'multiple SEP events with one spacecraft' and 'one SEP event with multiple spacecraft'. A functional relation I_{max}(r)=kr^{-1.7} quantifying the radial dependence of SEP peak intensities is obtained and utilized in the analysis of physical mechanism. The relationship between our results and those of Dresing et al. is also discussed.