As the source of the solar wind, the solar corona is a crucial component of solar-terrestrial relations. The study is the first attempt to derive both the magnetic field and density distribution over 3-dimensions in the solar corona from measurements. It will test the underlying assumptions of the most recent model, that the global structure of the corona can be described with a simple magnetostatic model that includes only horizontal currents in the corona. Furthermore, application of this model to the extensive synoptic data sets will give a quantitative description of the variations in the corona over timescales comparable to the solar cycle. This will be an important step towards understanding the structure and stability of the solar corona. The aim of study is to derive large-scale, fully 3 dimensional descriptions of both the magnetic field and the distribution of plasma in the lower corona. The model is to be constrained by (a) measurements of white light that has ben scattered by coronal electrons (obtained at the High Altitude Observatory coronameter stationed at Mauna Loa, Hawaii) and (b) measurements of the magnetic field in the photosphere (obtained at the Stanford Solar Observatory). Each coronameter measurement is an integral of scattered light along a line-of-sight through the 3-d density structure. Thus inverting the coronal tomography, with the added constraint that the model must also match the observed photospheric magnetic field. To model the large-scale structure, which does not change substantially over a solar rotation, it is possible to take a magnetostatic model and data from a full rotation. Studies will consider data from solar minimum when the corona is most steady, but the ultimate goal is to find a quantitative means of describing changes in the solar corona over timescales such as the solar cycle.//
