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S.R. Habbal (CfA), J. Johnson (Electricon), P. Nisenson (CfA), R. Woo (JPL/Caltech), S. Fineschi (U. Turin), R. Esser, C.H. Wood (CfA), J. Hale (Hale Engineering), M.A. Forman (SUNY, Stony Brook), J.A. Johnson (JPL/Caltech), J. Jabbour (Tishreen University)
The goal of the eclipse expedition of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on 1999 August 11 to Ayn Diwar in Syria was to explore the temperature, density and magnetic structure of the corona through simultaneous imaging in the Fe X 6374, XIV 5303 and XI 7892 Å\ lines, the H\alpha 6563 Å\ line, and the polarized brightness or white light. Polarization measurements were made in the Fe XIV 5303 Å\ and H\alpha 6563 Å\ lines to yield the direction of the coronal magnetic field. Inferences of the temperature distribution were made from the three iron lines, while density profiles were derived from the polarized brightness measurements. Supporting space based observations were acquired with LASCO and UVCS on SOHO. The comprehensive diagnostic resulting from the analysis of the observations of the close-to-spherically symmetric corona of 1999 August 11 approaching solar maximum will be presented.
Funding for this research was provided by NSF grant ATM 9521733 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. We acknowledge the generous hospitality and support bestowed upon the team by the Syrian Ministry of Higher Education to conduct the experiment in Syria. The digitization of the photographic film was made with the help of Dr. J. Thornton and S. Sarafian from the Image Science Laboratory at Polaroid Corporation.