Acceleration of Prominences in the Low Corona

We show examples of prominence eruptions as observed in the low corona and present preliminary results of an observational study aimed to investigate the relationship between the acceleration of eruptive prominences and the speed of their associated CMEs. For this study, we have selected events near the limb when we can identify eruptive prominences in Mauna Loa ground based observations that show a clear association with CMEs during the period 1998-present. MLSO/CHIP images in the HeI 1083nm line and the MLSO/PICS images in the Hα 656.3nm line are used to identify the eruptive prominences and to determine its projected radial velocity and acceleration. SOHO/LASCO and MLSO/MK4 observations are used to determine the trajectory of the corresponding CME.