2047 20160701171657.0 10.1553/cia147s76 DOI ASTROimport-204 Asplund, M. 2006 The new solar abundances - Part I: the observations The new solar abundances have been derived from analyses of the photospheric spectrum. They result from the use of a 3D hydrodynamical model of the solar atmosphere instead of the classical 1D hydrostatic models, accounting for departures from LTE when possible and improved atomic and molecular data. The new solar abundances are lower than previously recommended values and the present solar metallicity, Z, and Z/X, decrease to Z = 0.0122 and Z/X = 0.0165 respectively, almost a factor of two lower than earlier widely used values. We briefly discuss the new results for the most abundant elements, show why they are trustworthy and discuss some implications (see also Montalban et al. 2006, Part II). Grevesse, N. Sauval, A. J. Communications in Asteroseismology 147 2006 76-79 http://esoads.eso.org/abs/2006CoAst.147...76A published in REFERD