MICA: The Mirror Coronagraph for Argentina

As part of the new German-Argentinian Solar Observatory in El Leoncito, San Juan, Argentina, a new ground-based solar telescope (MICA) began to operate in August 1997. MICA is an advanced mirror coronagraph, its design being an almost exact copy of the LASCO-C1 instrument. Since its installation, it has been imaging the inner solar corona (1.05 to 2.0 solar radii) in two spectral ranges corresponding to the emission lines of the Fe XIV and Fe X ions. The instrument can image the corona as fast as every minute. Thus, it is ideally suited to study fast processes in the inner corona. In this way, it is a good complement for the LASCO-C1 instrument. After a brief review of the instrument, we present some recent observations showing the capabilities of the instrument.