  Triple differential cross sections of pions in heavy ion collisions at 1
GeV/nucl. are studied with the IQMD model. After discussing general properties
of $\Delta$ resonance and pion production we focus on azimuthal correlations:
At projectile- and target-rapidities we observe an anticorrelation in the
in-plane transverse momentum between pions and protons. At c.m.-rapidity,
however, we find that high $p_t$ pions are being preferentially emitted
perpendicular to the event-plane. We investigate the causes of those
correlations and their sensitivity on the density and momentum dependence of
the real and imaginary part of the nucleon and pion optical potential.
