Solar energetic particle intensities above the streaming limit

Solar cycle 23 offered us several solar energetic particle (SEP) events with peak intensities measured early in the events that exceeded the previously determined streaming limit intensity. In the context of the theory that includes the effects that waves generated by energetic particles streaming along magnetic field lines have on the energetic particle transport itself, the mechanisms that allow us to explain the exceeding of the streaming limit during the prompt component of the SEP events include either the inhibition of wave amplification by the streaming particles and/or the existence of large-scale interplanetary structures able to modify the SEP transport. We analyze these possibilities for the SEP events where either the 40-80 MeV or the 165-500 MeV proton intensities were observed in excess of the previously determined streaming limit by a factor of 4 or more.