ELEMENTAL ABUNDANCES IN THE UPPER SOLAR ATMOSPHERE OF QUIET AND CORONAL HOLE REGIONS (TE APPROXIMATE-TO 4.3 X 10(5) K)

Detailed examination of the Sun's upper atmosphere reveals that elemen tal abundances vary between different solar regions. Some solar region s exhibit the well-established photospheric abundances, while in other regions the abundances of some elements diverge from photospheric by an order of magnitude, and perhaps even more. Elemental abundances in the solar wind (SW) are also different from elemental abundances in th e photosphere. It is postulated that elemental abundances in the SW re flect the elemental abundances of their place of origin near the solar surface. The solar surface is covered, predominantly, by quiet and co ronal hole regions. In this paper we measure the intensities of limb-b rightening rings over quiet and coronal hole regions in lines of Mg VI and Ne VI (T(e) almost-equal-to 4.3 x 10(5) K) and determine the rela tive elemental abundances of the features producing the rings. The rin gs are formed by a plasma component occupying only a small fraction of the immediate volume above the solar surface. Since the brightness of the plasma occupying the rest of the volume is much smaller, it is no t discussed in this paper. The findings are correlated with elemental abundances in the SW.