[ITAL]SOHO[/ITAL]/EIT Observations of the 1997 April 7 Coronal Transient: Possible Evidence of Coronal Moreton Waves

We report observations obtained with the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on board SOHO of a large-scale coronal transient propagating across the disk of the Sun at a speed of 250 km s-1, in apparent association with a flare and coronal mass ejection. The observations consist of a series of images taken in the Fe XII 195 Å bandpass at an average cadence of 15 minutes. A visible increase in coronal emission propagates away from the erupting region, traveling across most of the solar disk in less than an hour. As the wave propagates through the ambient corona, its path is not homogeneous, and it is less observable near strong magnetic features such as active regions and magnetic neutral lines. The characteristics of this event appear to be representative of several other "EIT waves," which we identify as strong candidates for the coronal manifestation of Moreton waves.