The Relative Abundance of Silicon Iron and Nickel in the Solar Corona

The method of analysis, developed by Pottasch, for determining the relative abundance of elements represented in the far ultra-violet part of the solar spectrum has been extended to include recently identified lines of iron and nickel. The calculations of the ionization equilibrium included the process of dielectronic recombination. The results indicate that the abundance of iron relative to nickel is the same in the corona as in the photosphere, but that the abundance of iron relative to silicon is an order of magnitude larger in the corona than in the photosphere. The distribution of ∫R N²ₑdh with temperature now indicates a general coronal temperature of 1.4 × 10 6 °K and a decrease in the quantity of coronal material for temperatures in excess of this value.