Determination of three-dimensional structure of coronal streamers and relationship to the solar magnetic field

We have determined the location, in three dimensions, of eight quasi-stable coronal "streamers" from an analysis of Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Large-Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph images acquired over appr oximately one solar rotation. We use the locations to attempt to determine the solar origin of the streamers. Comparison of the streamers' locations ( longitude and latitude at the R approximate to 2.5 R-S source surface) with that of the current Sheet computed from a potential source surface model s how that all of the streamers lie in or near the heliospheric current sheet , We assume that the streamers coincide with magnetic field lines and use a potential source surface magnetic model to map the location of the streame rs from the source surface (R approximate to 2.5 R-S) to the photosphere, W e find that many of the streamers are associated with strong magnetic field active regions, When a streamer and its associated active region are visib le simultaneously, the active region is seen to be bright in the SOHO extre me ultraviolet imaging telescope (EIT) EW full disk images. This, and other evidence, leads us to conclude that many of the bright streamers are the r esult of scattering from regions of enhanced density associated with active region outflow, and not a result of line-of-sight viewing through folds in a warped current sheet with uniform density.