Two-dimensional electron density in the solar corona from inversion of white light images - Application to SOHO/LASCO-C2 observations

We present here the inversion method which has been developed to derive the electron density in the Solar Corona from LASCO-C2 white light images. We discuss how our inversion scheme can be applied either to images of polarized brightness of the corona or images of total brightness after removal of the dust and stray light components. The outputs from both schemes are compared. For the inversion of two-dimensional images of the solar corona, it is necessary to assume a global geometry for the electron density. We compare results obtained for spherical and axi-symmetric geometries. Finally, our results for December 1996 are compared to previous derivations of the electron radial density profiles obtained by other measurements.