Magnetic clouds appear in interplanetary space most commonly associated with other transient signatures. In a previous study we found that magnetic clouds are always associated with bidirectional fluxes of ions and electrons and in some cases with shocks and helium enrichments. Another interesting result from our previous study is that in most of the cases magnetic clouds are associated with coronal mass ejections accompanied by near surface solar events such as flares and filament eruptions. In this work we took 71 magnetic clouds observed near Earth and studied possible differences in the general characteristics and morphology of clouds associated with a) shocks and helium enhancements, and b) H&agr; flares and/or filament eruptions. We find that the most common profile and the average value of each parameter depends on the accompanying solar wind signatures and on the solar association. ©1999 American Institute of Physics.