Coronal mass ejections: Acceleration and surface associations

The fact that eruptive-prominence associated coronal mass ejection events may be accelerated over significant heights and times in the corona complicates the determination of possible surface or low coronal associations. A specific example of one such eruptive-prominence associated event, that observed in both the inner and outer solar corona on August 5, 1980, is used to illustrate the magnitude of the uncertainty of determining an onset time of the ejection. It is noted that such uncertainties may influence statistically-determined associations.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation