Isotopic and elemental abundances of neon nuclei accelerated in solar flares

The relative isotopic abundances of 20Ne and 22Ne in seven solar flares were determined from measurements on the satellite IMP 8, yielding the ratio 20Ne/22Ne=7.7 (+2.3, -1.5) for solar chromospheric matter. This value is in agreement with the ratio for the component Neon-A (the ''primordial'' component) found in carbonaceous chondrites. An elemental abundance ratio Ne/O=0.14 +- 0.01 also has been obtained which agrees closely with earlier reported measurements. It is shown that the effects of preferential acceleration relative to solar system abundances with increasing charge number observed for some solar flares--though biasing the elemental ratio--does not appear to influence the neon isotopic abundances