Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
If one defines coronal transients as events which occur in the solar corona on rapid time scales (≲ several hours) then one would have to include a large variety of solar phenomena: flares, sprays, erupting prominences, X-ray transients, white light transients, etc. Here we shall focus our attention on the latter two phenomena; solar flares have been discussed at great length in a recent Skylab workshop and IAU Colloqium No. 44 was devoted to the study of prominences. Coronal transients, in the narrower sense, were first seen with the instruments on board of Skylab, both in the optical and the X-ray part of the spectrum.