Preliminary Report: 1980 Eclipse Coronal Oscillations Experiment

Abstract

We searched for short period (1 second) brightness oscillations in coronal loops during the 1980 total solar eclipse using cooled photomultipliers and digital microprocessor data handling and recording. The experiment was designed to test the prediction of such oscillations based on a theory of coronal heating through surface Alfven waves. A second experiment using a silicon vidicon spectrometer observed ultraviolet and infrared spectra of the corona to measure temperature from the Doppler broadening of strong ultraviolet lines and density from the relative abundances of the forbidden iron-thirteen lines. Data reduction is under way.