Error Estimates in the Measurements of Mass and Energy in White Light CMEs

Due to the optically thin nature of the white light emission, all measurements of the energetics and dynamics of a CME are based on sky-plane projected quantities. The extent and distribution of the CME material along the line of sight is unknown. Thus, CME measurements have an inherent degree of uncertainty. In this paper, I identify the various (possible) sources of errors associated with measurements of CME mass and energy (e.g., instrumental, random, projections effects, etc) and give an error budget for the final measurements. I apply these errors to the statistics of mass and energy for several thousand CMEs observed with LASCO in 1996-2003.