For your consideration:

"You may be wondering about some of the terms used when describing the suns activity and why this is being called a prominence instead of a Filament, a Solar Flare or a CME .

There is a difference and I will do my best to enlighten you.

A Prominence is essentially a Filament, but they look bright or dark depending on the background as it is observed. Let me explain…

A prominence is a Filament only viewed from a different perspective. Prominences stick out beyond the edge of the Sun and are bright against the darkness of space while Filaments are viewed on the sun’s surface and are dark in color against the brightness of the sun.

Prominences and Filaments are formed in magnetic loops that hold relatively cool, dense gas suspended above the surface of the Sun,” Prominences are huge and they are typically tens of thousands of miles long, although have been observed to much bigger even extending over 200,000 miles.

Prominences are associated with the release high energy particles, known as a solar flares- which emit X-ray and UV radiation. When a prominence breaks apart, it produces a coronal mass ejection of CME. Solar flares are also called solar storms, which release x-rays and UV radiation as a wave of high-energy, positively charged protons that when they travel to earth from an earth facing solar flare can pass through the human body.I am currently researching how this effects the human body and I will be writing a coming article on this topic.

Once the sun has a prominence eruption and releases a solar flare which can in some instances release and becomes a CME it can take anywhere from minutes to a hours to reach Earth dependent upon the intensity of the CME."

Source: http://dawnofthetruth.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/solar-maximum-the-suns-latest-eruption-and-the-differences-between-a-solar-flare-a-cme-a-prominence-and-a-filament/