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Figure 1: Composite picture of the solar corona taken with a white light coronagraph (outer portion) and a soft X-ray imager (inner portion) on 30 June 1973. Adapted from Eddy [1979].

 
Figure 2: Schematic diagram showing normal open magnetic fields (A), a magnetic tongue connected to the Sun at both ends (B), a bottle or plasmoid magnetically closed on itself (C), and a coronal disconnection in which the field is open to the outer heliosphere at both ends (D). From McComas et al. [1994].

 
Figure 3: Figure 3. Schematic diagram of how sheared magnetic loops at the Sun can form a flux rope topology CME and closed arches beneath it. From Gosling [1993].

 
Figure 4: Figure 4. Sequence of events for open magnetic field lines to reconnect above a helmet streamer returning flux to the Sun as closed field arches and releasing a disconnected U-shaped structure (top left inset). The map shows the locations of the drawings (three lower insets) of a possible coronal disconnection observed during the 16 April 1893 solar eclipse. Adapted from Cliver et al. [1989] by McComas [1994].