Projection effects as a function of V_LASCO, which is the linear CME speed from SoHO/LASCO CME catalogue. Panel a: V_R, linear, the radial speed calculated from the derivation of the linear fit of position X_R (yellow line in Fig. 8). Red points correspond to events close to the limb, which are events at a longitude of ∈[45, 135] ∪ [−45, −135] in the Stonyhurst coordinate system. The blue points correspond to the others, with a longitude ∈[−45, 45] ∪ [−135, −180] ∪ [135, 180], directed towards or inwards the Earth, respectively. Panel b: V_R, max with the same colour code. The red dashed line is a linear fit of the red points, corresponding to Eq. (3) with a CC of 0.89, and the blue dashed line is a linear fit of the blue points, corresponding to Eq. (4) with a CC of 0.78.