During the Maximum Year, preflare and preeruptive phenomena have been observed which give a new idea on the association of eruptive prominences and coronal transients. The propagation of a C IV brightening through a prominence is related to the onset of a
MHD wave. It is followed by the activation of the prominence and its eruption some two hours later. A coronal transient is observed above 1.6 Rs. It is argued that the eruption of the prominence is
the result of perturbations in the magnetic field configuration initiated by the MHD waves. The consequence would be that more generally the primary initiation of the eruption may happen up to
several hours before the rlse of the prominence.
We have studied the height dependent characteristics of the Evershed flow in the photosphere, chromosphere and chromosphere-corona transition region. We have used the Multichannel Subtractive Double Pass Spectrograph (MSDP) to
obtain line of sight velocity maps in Hα, the Meudon magnetograph for mapping the photospheric velocity field and the Ultraviolet Spectrometer and Polarimeter (UVSP) on the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft to obtain line of sight velocities in C IV, in sunspot regions. Our emphasis was on the large scale,
quasi-stationary characteristics of the flow. In the photosphere the velocity is low above the umbra and shows a maximum above the penumbra. In addition to the reversal of the flow in the chromosphere both the characteristic scale of the flow and the velocity are larger; the velocity maximum is located outside the photospheric penumbra. In the chromosphere-corona transition
region there is a clear tendency for a chromospheric-type Evershed effect with a predominantly horizontal flow. The velocity is greater than in the chromosphere, but the characteristic scale of the flow is about the same. In addition to the Evershed flow, C IV observations show upflows above the umbra with a velocity of about 15 km/sec.