On the production of highest energy solar protons at 20 January 2005

On January 20, 2005, 7:02–7:05 UT the Aragats Multidirectional Muon Monitor (AMMM) located at 3200 m a.s.l. registered enhancement of the high energy secondary muon flux (threshold ∼5 GeV). The enhancement, lasting for 3 min, has statistical significance of ∼4σ and is related to the X7.1 flare seen by the GOES, and very fast (>2500 km/s) CME seen by SOHO, and the Ground Level Enhancements (GLE) #69 detected by the world-wide network of neutron monitors and muon detectors. The energetic and temporal characteristics of the muon signal from the AMMM are compared with the characteristics of other monitors located at the Aragats Space-Environmental Center (ASEC) and with other neutron and muon detectors. Since secondary muons with energies >5 GeV are corresponding to solar proton primaries with energies 20–30 GeV we conclude that in the episode of the particle acceleration at 7:02–7:05 UT 20 January 2005 solar protons were accelerated up to energies in excess of 20 GeV.