The Double Structure of the Coronal Streamer Belt

Abstract

Increasing the effective spatial resolution when analyzing LASCO-C2/SOHO data helped to reveal the existence of double-ray structure in the streamer belt, both in the absence and presence of belt bends. Streamer-belt rays located in the plane of the sky are demonstrated to deviate poleward (north- and southward, respectively, in the N and S hemispheres) at distances R < 4{-}5R_⊙ from the Sun center. These new results concerning streamer belt structure are important as the basis for checking a theory claiming to adequately describe physical processes in the corona.