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, observed in both the inner and outer solar corona on Aug. 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.