Satellite observations of the outer corona near sunspot maximum

This paper shows the first satellite observations of the Sun's white light corona (2.6 R_⊙ - 10.0 R_⊙) during the active phase of a sunspot cycle. Since March 28, 1979, these observations have been obtained routinely with a spatial resolution of 1.25 arc min and a repetition rate of 10 minutes during the one-hour sunlit portion of each 97-minute satellite orbital period. As an illustration of these new observations, we show the coronal changes associated with the great mass of May 8, 1979.