http://s18.postimg.org/izj5kq1ix/CME_sun_surface_annotated.png

Before the CME, you can see that the bundle of looping field lines, on which the CME plasma was suspended, had been "fanned out" vertically, away from the sun's surface; and, plasma was concentrated, on the lowest "rung" of that "ladder" of horizontal field lines; and plasma was also concentrated, on the highest "rung" thereof.  And, the plasma on the highest field line was what "stretched away" from the sun -- looking at the other images, inexpertly, the field line(s) associated with the CME plasma simply seemed to stretch, like an infinitely plasticly deformable "gumbi" or "elastic man".  No field lines seemed to "rip out" of the sun, at any time; always the field lines returned to the sun's surface, penetrating down there-in-to, vertically.  Inexpertly, magnetic field lines resemble infinitely stretchable rubber bands, which, when their magnetic tension is overcome -- perhaps plasma slowly built up on the highest field line, even as it slowly stretched away from the sun, until it "gave way" -- simply stretch away (potentially) to infinity.

If the magnetic fields, of two pairs of sun-spots (N:S + N:S), can re-connect (N::S) and release energy; then can a single sun-spot pair split into two pairs, whilst absorbing energy (thermal energy from the plasma, and/or EM energy from the radiation field) ?

If so, then Solar Flare-ups would have an inverse, some sort of "Solar Dim-Downs", when EM emissions from the sun would decrease suddenly, and plasma temperatures would cool suddenly, as energy was deposited into the magnetic field, as originally-single field lines "broke" into opposing pairs of field lines.

In analogy, if two bar magnets will release energy in slamming together; then you could exert energy, to pull them apart; your muscular mechanical energy would be deposited into splitting & doubling field lines.  Near-field lines would split first, and far-out looping lines would split later -- field lines "want" to shorten, so the farther out lines looped, the farther you'd have to pull the magnets apart, before the looping lines could "find a nearer north pole", to re-attach to.

http://s22.postimg.org/o69d0n9ht/CME_close_up_re_annotated.png

The above figure attempts to depict my understanding of the sun's poloidal magnetic field, at the time of the apparently profound CME of 31 Aug. 2012 AD.  If field lines of opposite polarity attract each other, et vice versa; then the "bunching up" and "bouncing off" of the CME's looping field lines, from the regions of radial field lines along which solar wind was streaming space-ward, seemingly suggests that the CME's field lines "pointed in the same direction" as the sun's radial field lines.  With that logic, and some sense of symmetry, i inferred the field-line polarities (within a global +/- sign, i.e. everything could be flipped the other way).  If so, then the sun had a vaguely-bar-magnet-like dipolar field, whose N/S poles were trifurcated into multiple spatially-separated regions, in their respective physical hemispheres.  However, that is inconsistent with the Wikipedia article for the sun's corona, which depicts both physical poles as having the same polarity (into the sun), with field lines emerging out from the sun, near the equator.

My main observation, is that i think you can see, that the CME began, when a stretched-apart bundle of field lines was shredded completely apart, like a piece of string-cheese, with half the string recoiling back down into the sun, and the split / shredded off half blasted out into space.  At all stages of the CME, i think you can see, that when horizontal field lines (parallel to sun's surface) encounter outwardly propagating streams of solar wind, propagating along radial field lines; then the horizontal looping bundles of field lines become stretched apart, somewhat similar to string-cheese, into flat planar structures, somewhat similar to an oriental fan being fanned out.

First, in the video of the CME from the link i listed, you can see, that before the CME, there existed two coronal flux loops, one higher in altitude (and more prominent), the other lower in altitude (which brightens as the upper filament begins to detach).  As the CME escapes to space, the lower filament energizes, brightens, and contracts towards (into?) the sun's surface.  So, apparently, before the CME, the upper filament was pulled downward by the lower; and the lower was pulled upward by the higher.  When the latter detached, and escaped to space, the lower contracted downwards.  Perhaps, somehow, field lines diffused from the upper, to the lower, so that magnetic tension became weaker in the upper (which ballooned outwards), whilst the lower became stronger (so contracting, carrying its entrained plasma downwards) ?

 Second, the CME caused shockwaves in the adjacent regions of radial field lines. That the CME anchor field lines "bunched up" against those other magnetic pole lines suggests that they both had the same polarity (N:N or S:S), or else the field lines would have attracted each other and cancelled out, surely.  So, you can reconstruct the polarity / directionality of the field lines.

 Third, the CME derived from a field-line loop, which cut across an equatorial region of radial field lines (albeit far fainter than the two near-physical-polar regions).  Those radial field lines, and also the plasma streaming space-wards along them, surely stretched the CME's loop upward, away from the sun.  The CME's loop was, apparently, similar to a tree in the middle of a river, forcing the water around it to either side, until it is uprooted, and carried downstream in the flow.

 The following figure attempts to depict the above speculations.  Perhaps plasma slowly accumulated, from the radial flow, onto the upper filament, which stretched upwards, so spreading out its field lines (and so weakening its magnetic strength), until plasma pressure overcame field tension, and the field lines restraining the plasma quickly failed, "slingshotting" the plasma out to space ?

http://s15.postimg.org/usncl0gzf/CME_close_up_annotated.png

i understand, that magnetic field lines are "flux frozen" into electrically-conductive plasmas.  Perhaps anchoring field lines, restraining the Prominence from escaping to space, slowly diffuse upward, from the sun's core, up into its convective envelope, under the constant tension thereof.  Then, once the field lines are pulled into the convection zone, perhaps plasma conductivity is much lower, so that the field lines can diffuse through much more easily, allowing the Prominence above the surface to escape swiftly?  And/or, since the Prominence represents a "bundle" of field lines, then if the whole bundle was required to restrain the Prominence plasma; and if some significant fraction of those lines became twisted around and reconnected; then even a partial reconnection event, would leave the Prominence partially, but insufficiently, moored inside the sun, allowing the Prominence plasma to escape.

The CME i mentioned apparently occurred on 31 Aug. 2012 AD, when a previously persistent Prominence suddenly escaped to space.  Inexpertly, the pulling-away of the Prominence, from the sun's surface, resembled the elastic deformation, and ultimate failure, of metal wires, strained under increasing stress.  If the plasma up in the sun's corona "wanted" to escape to space, and was only restrained by the field lines onto which it was residing; and if those field lines, deep inside the sun, suddenly became un-moored from the sun (perhaps by a magnetic re-connection); then the whole loop of plasma, up in the corona, would be sling-shotted away from the sun, vaguely similar to shooting a rubber band, held taught between your thumb on one hand (= plasma seeking escape) until you let go with the fingers on your other hand (= magnetic re-connection, which cuts loose the loop of field lines).  If so, then CMEs resemble "plasma slingshots".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDvMs-UoI3o

Inexpertly, one observed CME seemed to span the angle (~120 degrees), between two prominent magnetic poles, near the north & south physical poles, on the sun's surface.  Perhaps those two magnetic poles, approximately comparable in prominence, reside on the same bundle of field lines ?  And perhaps field lines, entering into the sun at one pole, and threading through the center, before emerging again out of the sun at the other pole, can develop a loop-de-loop (by a combination of a loop, e.g. rising plasma pulling up its section of field lines; and a twist, around a radial / vertical axis), which loop-de-loop can rise up, and out, of the sun, carried by the plasma "puff" of the CME ?

the following figure attempts to illustrate this speculation.  The prominent magnetic poles could, then, represent the "bundle" of field lines remaining inside the sun, from many previous prior CMEs.

http://s23.postimg.org/iuh4u2si3/CME_w_proposed_magnetic_field_lines.png

In the center of the sun, temperatures are (estimated to be) 10-20 Mega-Kelvin.  During a Solar Flare, on the surface of the sun, temperatures increase to 10-20 Mega-Kelvin.  So, perhaps a Solar Flare is an upwelling, of plasma, from the center of the sun -- vaguely similar to a "Mantle Plume" upwelling within the earth, i.e. a rapid plasma version of the Siberian Traps eruption on earth a quarter billion years ago ?

 Inexpertly, a CME resembles a "runaway Solar Prominence", i.e. the loop of magnetic field lines not only rises up to, and penetrates through the surface of the sun; but then also keeps on going, rising out into space, away from the sun.  The bow-shaped field lines at the front straighten out, perhaps carried by the plasma blasting away from the sun; the vertical (radial) field lines emerging from the sun continue to allow plasma to rise up along them, for some period after the bow-shaped front escapes the sun.

 Perhaps, Solar Flares, w/o CME, derive from super-hot plasma rising from the fusing center of the sun, which "plume" to the surface, but are restrained & magnetically confined, by the sun's magnetic field lines ?  Whereas, CMEs occur, when the field lines fail to restrain the plasma ?