An analysis using modern atomic data of fluxes culled from the literature for O VIII and Ne IX lines observed in solar active regions by the P78 and Solar Maximum Mission satellites confirms that the coronal Ne/O abundance ratio varies by a factor of two or more , and finds an increase in Ne/O with increasing active region plasma temperature .
The latter is reminiscent of evidence for increasing Ne/O with stellar activity in low-activity coronae that reaches a “ neon saturation ” in moderately active stars at approximately twice the historically accepted solar value of about 0.15 by number .
We argue that neon saturation represents the underlying stellar photospheric compositions , and that low activity coronae , including that of the Sun , are generally depleted in neon .
The implication would be that the solar Ne/O abundance ratio should be revised upward by a factor of about two to n ( Ne ) / n ( O ) \sim 0.3 .
Diverse observations of neon in the local cosmos provide some support for such a revision .
Neon would still be of some relevance for reconciling helioseismology with solar models computed using recently advocated chemical mixtures with lower metal content .