Modeling a simple coronal streamer during whole sun month

We model the simplest, most symmetric solar minimum streamer structure observed during the Whole Sun Month (WSM). We first use a Van de Hulst inversion to determine coronal electron density profiles and scale-height temperature profiles using white light coronal images from SOHO/LASCO and the HAO/MLSO coronagraphs. This method is of limited use in understanding coronal force balance, however, so we next apply the axisymmetric magnetostatic model of Gibson, Bagenal, and Low (1996). With this model we can quantify a density, temperature, and magnetic field distribution in self-consistent force balance, using both the coronal white light data and photospheric magnetic field data from the Wilcox Solar Observatory as the observational constraints on the model. This magnetostatic model, applied in a regime where solar wind velocities are below the sonic point, is currently the only model of global physical force balance (including MHD simulations) to predict a density distribution in the large scale corona (i.e. 1.2 -2.5R_sun) that matches white light observations to within observational error. We present the densities and temperatures attained by the Van de Hulst and magnetostatic models, and compare the magnetic field predicted by the magnetostatic model to a potential field extrapolation from the photosphere.