Surface brightness and color distributions of elliptical and S0 galaxies. I - The Coma cluster elliptical galaxies

U and R surface brightness profiles are presented for 96 elliptical and SO galaxies in the Coma cluster. Analysis of the surface brightness structure and color distributions within these systems leads to the following basic conclusions: (1) Lower-luminosity galaxies have sharper surface brightness falloffs than those characteristic of higher-luminosity galaxies. (2) Galaxies that have the same luminosity can differ widely in their structural properties. (3) The distribution of structural properties for a given luminosity depends on the location of a galaxy within the cluster. (4) The frequency distribution of derived ellipticities is independent of the location of a galaxy within the cluster and of galaxy luminosity. (5) Most systems that exhibit color changes become bluer with increasing distance from the nucleus. (6) The frequency of systems that show large changes in halo color (on scales of tens of kiloparsecs) is greater among luminous ellipticals. (7) Systems that exhibit halo color radients have more extended halos than other galaxies of comparable luminosity. (8) The contours of constant color (and presumably constant mean chemical composition) are nearly identical to, but slightly flatter than, the contours of constant surface brightness.