Mars Express and Venus Express multi-point observations of geoeffective solar flare events in December 2006

• In December 2006, a single active region produced a series of proton solar flares, with X-ray class up to the X9.0 level, starting on 5December 2006 at 10:35 UT. A feature of this X9.0 flare is that associated MeV particles were observed at Venus and Mars by VenusExpress (VEX) and Mars Express (MEX), which were 801 and 1251 east of the flare site, respectively, in addition to the Earth, whichwas 791 west of the flare site. On December 5, 2006, the plasma instruments ASPERA-3 and ASPERA-4 on board MEX and VEXdetected a large enhancement in their respective background count levels. This is a typical signature of solar energetic particle (SEP)events, i.e., intensive MeV particle fluxes. The timings of these enhancements were consistent with the estimated field-aligned travel timeof particles associated with the X9.0 flare that followed the Parker spiral to reach Venus and Mars. Coronal mass ejection (CME)

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