This RUI project will investigate aspects of the coronal heating problem through mapping temperature of the solar corona and studying the oscillation spectrum of coronal loops during the low-background circumstances of an eclipse. Observations provide tests of proposed mechanisms to explain the heating of the solar corona via weakly compressive magnetohydrodynamic waves. The 26 February 1998 total solar eclipse will provide more and brighter loops because of the rising phase of the solar activity cycle. These new observations will greatly improve previously published results, as well as distinguish between standing and propagating waves.
