Metallicities and kinematics of G and K dwarfs

We have developed a photometric abundance indicator for G and K dwarfs, basedon accurate, spectroscopically determined abundances for G and K dwarfs ofMorell, K\"allander and Butcher (1992) and Morell (1994). Broadband Cousins R-Iphotometry is used to estimate effective temperature and the Geneva b_1 colourto estimate line blanketing in the blue and hence abundance. Abundances can bederived in the range -2.0<[Fe/H]<0.5 for G0 to K3 dwarfs, with a scatter in[Fe/H] of 0.2 dex. We apply the method to a sample of Gliese catalog G and Kdwarfs, and examine the metallicity and kinematic properties of the stars. Thestars show the well established observational features of the disk, thick diskand halo in the solar neighbourhood. We find that the distribution of local Kdwarf metallicity is quite similar to local G dwarfs, indicating that there isa ``K-dwarf'' as well as a G-dwarf problem.