ON THE DETERMINATION OF THE SOLAR IRON ABUNDANCE USING FE-I LINES - COMMENTS

We comment on a response by Holweger et al. (1995) to a recent paper c oncerning the solar abundance of iron as determined using low-excitati on Fe I lines (Blackwell et al. 1995). In particular we consider in de tail the precision of oscillator strengths determined by emission and absorption methods and present evidence for the superior accuracy of t hose measured by the absorption technique. Arguments are given which s uggest that the original analysis of Blackwell et al. (1984), leading to a 'high' solar iron abundance as determined from low-excitation Fe I lines using the Holweger-Muller model solar atmosphere, is substanti ally correct.