The dynamics of the minimum solar corona during the period August-October 1996

The paper presents the dynamics of the solar corona at the minimum phase of the solar cycle (period August-October 1996), as inferred from LASCO-C1 spectral data. LASCO-C1 is an internally occulted coronagraph aboard the SOHO spacecraft. It has a tunable Fabry-Pérot interferometer which allows taking spectral scans of selected coronal emission lines. From measured line profiles we deduced physical quantities such as temperature and flow velocities along the line of sight. This way, we obtained information on the flow pattern in the low corona (1.1-1.6 solar radii).