Experimental and methodical possibilities of modern observations of the solar K-corona have been analyzed. It is shown that for obtaining information on matter distribution and dynamics in the internal solar corona, it is necessary to measure both its polarization component and its total radiation in the continuum. In order to reduce the atmospheric and instrumental background, the employment of K-coronameters with an apodized liquid mirror is proposed. Such coronameters should operate in the near infrared range and be installed at a latitude zone where the Sun can be observed in the zenith.Information concerning the distribution of matter in the internal solar corona is key in understanding the origin and interrelation of physical processes in the solar atmosphere. Meanwhile, modern heliophysics actually is lacking systematic data on the dynamics of the proper coronal matter in the region from the chromosphere up to the altitudes about 0.5 R e .Non-eclipse observations being performed both by the ground-based facilities and the devices placed beyond the troposphere, can be conditionally divided into the following two types. The first one concerns the observations in the spectral ranges for which the coronal plasma radiation is equal to or even more intensive than that of the denser layers of the solar atmosphere, i.e., radio frequencies, far ultra-violet, or X-ray bands. Over these ranges, the radiation mechanisms (such as braking, recombination, magnetobraking, forbidden transitions between the levels, i.e., the emission lines of heavily ionized elements and, maybe, a synchroton mechanism) are determined by a wide scope of conditions and parameters (Vasilyev, 1975). Among these parameters (e.g. general degree of plasma ionization, energy of radiating particles, temperature, etc.) the matter density in the source region is not a principal one, as a rule (House et al., 1981). Besides, a reliable detection of the density factor from the observed characteristics for the above-mentioned types of radiation of the internal corona encounters fundamental difficulties (Hang, 1979).The second type of observation is related to the visible or neighbouring ranges of the spectrum. For the altitudes above the photosphere of interest for us, the 'electron corona' glow in the continuous spectrum (specifically, the K-corona) is caused by Thomson scattering of the low-layer solar atmosphere radiation from the coronal plasma free electrons. As this mechanism is non-selective, and the relation between the K-corona brightness and the electron (and, hence, the proton) concentration is unambiguous, the measurements of the continuous spectrum made with the use of the colorimeter monitoring (Vasilyev, 1989) yield the only true information on the distribuSolar Physics 132: 271-277, 1991. 9 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in Belgium.
