There are lots of confusing terms in the world of climate science, meteorology, and the world of NOAA and the National Weather Service. Often somebody new to the arena can get overwhelmed by it all. So this should help.
This list was started by Philip Mulholland, posted on Dr. Roger Pielke’s website, and brought to my attention by Evan Jones in comments. I’ve added some terms relevant to this blog and I will continue to add to it.
Feel free to suggest additions/corrections in the comments below.
Climate Science Acronyms
AAAS American Academy of Arts and Sciences
AAS American Astronomical Society
AASC American Association of State Climatologists
ACIA Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
AGU American Geophysical Union
AMB Australian Meteorological Bureau
AMS American Meteorological Society
AR4 IPCC Working Group 1 report: The Physical Basis of Climate Change
BAMS Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
BOM-A Bureau of Meteorology, aka Australian Meteorological Bureau
CA Climate Audit website operated by Steve McIntyre
CDIAC Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (Oak Ridge, TN)
CCSP Climate Change Science Program
CERN Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire
CIRES Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
CLOUD Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets
ECMWF European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
EUMETSAT European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
GCOS Global Climate Observing System
GECC UK Global Environmental Change Committee
GISS Goddard Institute for Space Studies
GFDL Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
GFSC Goddard Space Flight Center not to be confused with GISS
GHCC Global Hydrology & Climate Center
GOOS Global Ocean Observing System
GTOS Global Terrestrial Observing System
IASC International Arctic Science Committee
ICECAP International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project
ICSU International Council for Science
IOC Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
MBL Marine Biological Laboratory (aka Woods Hole)
METHC Met Office Hadley Centre
NAMMA NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses
NAS National Academy of Sciences
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research
NCDC National Climatic Data Center
NCEP National Centers for Environmental Prediction
NSF National Science Foundation
NSIDC National Snow and Ice Data Center
NOAA National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service
RC Real Climate website, operated by NASA GISS
RMetS Royal Meteorological Society
RSS Remote Sensing Systems – satellite data company
SAR Second Assessment Report IPCC 1995
SPPI Science and Public Policy Institute
TAR Third Assessment Report IPCC 2001
TRMM Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
UAH University of Alabama in Huntsville, Atmospheric Science Department
UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
USGCRP US Global Change Research Program
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UW University of Washington Department of Atmospheric Sciences
WGMS World Glacier Monitoring Service
WMO World Meteorological Organisation
Climate Science Abbreviations
ACIA Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
ADRF Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing
AEW African Easterly Waves
AGHG Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (Anthro- man made)
AGW Anthropogenic Global Warming (Anthro- man made)
AIRF Aerosol Indirect Radiative Forcing
AMO Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
AO Arctic Oscillation (aka NAM)
AOD Aerosol Optical Depth
AOGCM Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model
ARF Aerosol Radiative Forcing
ARIMA AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average
BT Brightness Temperature
CAGW Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (Anthro- man made)
CAPE Convective Available Potential Energy
CAS Climate Analysis System
CRS Cotton Region Shelter, another name for a Stevenson Screen
CCN Cloud Condensation Nuclei
CINE Convection Inhibition Energy
CO2 Carbon dioxide
CONUS Conterminus United States
COT Cloud Optical Thickness
CRE Cloud Radiative Effect
CRF Cosmic Ray Flux
CRII Cosmic Ray Induced Ionisation
CRN Climate Reference Network
DEAD Dust Entrainment and Deposition
DLF Downward Longwave Flux
DTR Diurnal Temperature Range
DVI Dust Veil Index
ENSO El Nino Southern Oscillation
EOF Empirical Othogonal Function
FACE Free Air Carbon Enrichment
FAR First Assessment Report IPCC 1990
FOIA Freedom of Information Act
GCM General Circulation Model
GCM Global Circulation Model
GCM Global Climate Model
GCR Galactic Cosmic Ray
GHCN Global Historical Climate Network
GHG Greenhouse Gas
GISS Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Columbia Univ, NYC. Dr. Gavin A. Schmidt)
GMST Global Mean Surface Temperature
GOSTA Global Ocean Surface Temperature Atlas
GRL Geophysical Research Letters
GW Global Warming
HadCRUT Hadley Center – Climate Research Unit Temperature
HadSST Hadley Center – Climate Research Unit Sea Surface Temperature
HMF Heliospheric Magnetic Field
IR Infra Red
IRD Ice-Rafted Debris
ISO IntraSeasonal Oscillations
LACC Low Altitude Cloud Cover
LCC Land-Cover Change
LCL Lifting Condensation Level
LFC Level of Free Convection
LFO Low-Frequency Oscillation
LGM Last Glacial Maximum
LI Lifted Index
LIA Little Ice Age
LNB Level of Neutral Bouyancy
LTS Lower-Tropospheric Stability
LUC Land-Use Change
LW LongWave aka LWIR, below
LWC Liquid Water Content
LWIR Long Wave Infra Red
MAGICC Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse gas Induced Climate Change
MAT Marine Air Temperature
MEP Member of European Parliment
MJO Madden-Julian Oscillation
MMTS Max Min Temperature System (thermometer used in USHCN)
MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
MPA Mobile Polar Anticyclone
MSD Mean Square Differences
MSLP Mean Sea-Level Pressure
MSU Microwave Sounding Unit
MWP Medieval Warm Period
NADW North Atlantic Deep Water
NARR North American Regional Reanalysis
NAM Northern Annular Mode (aka AO)
NAO North Atlantic Oscillation
NATL North Atlantic Tropical Latitude
NH Northern Hemisphere
NPO North Pacific Oscillation
NWP Numerical Weather Prediction
OMR Observation Minus Reanalysis
OPAC Optical Properties of Aerosol and Cloud
PDF Probability Distribution Function
PDO Pacific Decadal Oscillation
PDI Palmer Drought Index (Moisture)
PDI Power Dissipation Index (Hurricanes)
POD Period of Data
QBO Quasi-Biennial zonal wind Oscillation
RCM Regional Climate Model
SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar
SAT Surface Air Temperature
SCENGEN A regional climate SCENario GENerator
SLP Sea Level Pressure
SOI Southern Oscillation Index
SRES Special Report on Emissions Scenarios
SST Sea Surface Temperature
STS Sub Tropical Storms
SW ShortWave
THC Thermo-Haline Circulation (wow, look at the colors)
TOA Top of Atmosphere
TSI Total Solar Irradiance
UHI Urban Heat Island
USHCN US Historical Climate Network
Well done on the glossary – AMB might best be BOM-A or similar. We know, and love it, as Bureau of Meteorology.
REPLY: Done, thanks.
When you get started on your global stations survey, here is the link to BOMs work already done (although I’m unsure which of these make it into GISS). The vast bulk of them are airports (large and small).
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/reference.shtml
Anthony,
In your Glossary, the abbreviation AGW is missing.
REPLY: Done, thanks. Sometimes the most obvious ones are the hardest to think to include.
Your website is excellent. Thank you very much.
Jean Meeus (retired Belgian meteorologist, but still
active in astronomy)
Dear Anthony,
Thanks for the glossary! I reckon it could save 100,000 people a few dozen ‘googles’ a month…
I think you missed CRN in your list, while CCSP, GISS, NOAA, UNEP and CRS are a just off their mark, alphabetically.
Anthony,
Good job with the glossary, especially the links. You might add the link for USHCN and move it up to the Climate Science Acronyms for consistency.
Also, CA has an acronym list at http://www.climateaudit.org/?page_id=1288
Suggestions:
COOP
HADCRU
NESDIS
CRN (Jonathan)
And maybe even “WUWT”!
ROW rest of the world
Evan beat me to it.
Dang.
Still a good idea.
Dear Anthony,
I found another one you may want to include: GHCN.
By the way: even though the list probably looks nicer and more organised in its current arrangement, wouldn’t you agree that it would be more convenient for lay readers (like myself) to merge the two parts of the glossary into one big list? – Or has my layziness (sorry) really gotten to my head on this one?
REPLY: Thanks, will add.
red noise.
There’s a pile of statistics terminology that deserves a nod as well.
CWP current warm period
UTWV = upper troposphere water vapor
WV
DWR downwelling radiation
UWR
OLR outgoing longwave radiation
SL sea level
SLR sea level rise
NIPCC Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change
NACC (US) National Assessment of Climate Change
CCSP (US) Climate Change Science Program
Anthony,
Lazy poet that I am, it would be nice if I could click on a acronym in a comment and see its definition. Also, big words. I wonder if there is a program that might automatically do that?
Some people are never satisfied 🙂
Love your site.
REPLY: I Can’t help with the automated acronyms, but I do have a glossary link at the top of the page.
As for “big words”, how about “Milankovitch Pleistocene climate variation” 😉
If you want large text, hold down the CTRL key and turn your center mouse scroll wheel and you’ll be able to make the text bigger or smaller.
Or if you don’t have a mouse wheel use the key combination CTRL and + or CTRL and – to change size.
? “ACE” in regards to hurricanes
ty jb
Anthropo(s) = man in Greek. Not anthro as you indicate
Genic is from verb geno in Greek, meaning giving birth
Anthropogenic = given birth by man or technically speaking, man generated
By the way, Greco says that driving an electric car does not do any good to environment unless you re-charge it using solar power.
Actually, if you re-charge it using the electricity plug, you may be doing more harm to environment that when using conventional ICE car.
Greco says your blog is anthropo-eccentric
Greco
REPLY: See my about page for what I’ve done with solar power
CME? Coronal Mass Ejection?
The Hot Water Bottle Effect
By Stephen Wilde in CO2sceptics
(THWBE) An alternate to the greenhouse effect…
Anthony,
Do you know where I can find a 365-day visual satellite loop of the U.S.?
Thank You.
CONUS –
When I was in the Air Force, it meant the Continental U. S., including Alaska. The Coterminous (equally Conterminous, both ending in ‘ous’) meant the lower 48. Don’t know whether Alaska is included or not in meteorological usage, but that makes the difference.
Evan didn’t post this here:
evanjones (22:05:23) :
What means TOBS, SHAP, FILNET ?
Heads up! These are not in the Glossary and they definitely should be.
TOBS = Time of Observation bias. Depending on what 24-hour periods you use, you can get some very interesting distortions of the data. The TOBS correction fixes this.
SHAP = Station History Adjustment Program. This adjusts for station moves or urban creep. (Or else it doesn’t!) Bad/Incomplete SHAP is at the heart of the surface station problems.
FILNET = A program that fills in a station’s missing data by means of an interpolation algorithm. A subject of great controversy. One of the great advantages of automated collection of data is that it cuts out the “human element” and (in theory) leaves no gaps in the data record.
Anthony, I am not a scientist or meteorologist but I am a AGW SKEPTIC/DENIER and I despise Algore.
I’d like your to hear your comments on this article about a recent study done by University of Wisconsin at Madison researchers.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/318978
Anthony, even though I am an agnostic, I can’t help but say “Bless You”. Your and similar BLOGs are doing the world a great service. Please keep up the outstanding work.
SSW=Sudden Stratospheric Warming
Anthony,
Just found this resource, thank you for the attribution.
Email me if you would like a copy of my current list.
Philip
Very interesting site, but really this is more of an acronym list rather than a glossary.
For instance, Pacific Decadal Oscillation means nothing more to me than PDO does.
Is there any type of online primer that you recommend?
I would include JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency).
Altough it is not widely known, but JMA publishes its own global surface temperature series on a monthly basis. According to JMA global temperature data, the warmest year globally since 1891 was 1998. Their long-term trend estimate is 0.68°c/century, while it is essentially zero for the last 15 years (1997-2011).
Their global temperature page is available here: http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/temp/ann_wld.html
Monthly anomaly maps: http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/gwp/temp/map/temp_map.html
An aside, off topic – website of BOM in Australia shows cloud images from JMA satellites, no doubt just one of many such sharing arrangements worldwide.
http://www.bom.gov.au/gms/IDE00035.latest.shtml
Keep up the good work Anthony.
In addition to the above, see also the following lists:-
Glossary of Acronyms
Survey of Climate Change Sites
Links to web.archive.org Wayback files:-
Glossary of Acronyms
Survey of Climate Change Sites
What does ASOS mean?
May I suggest that GISP2 should make an appearance on your list?
Appreciate it for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting information. “You can’t help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself.” by Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
The Library – Climate Audit 101
An eclectic list of documents, mentioned by contributors and posters, arranged in year order, that can be freely accessed in PDF format.
Link to web.archive.org Wayback file:-
The Library – Climate Audit 101
What does MSM mean ? Something to do with the press or media, but what exactly ?
[“Mainstream media.” ~dbs, mod.]
Should include WD for “we’re doomed”.
Excellent. When I started reading this blog a few years ago the fog of acronyms was a big problem.
Now, PLEASE, add a section on abbreviations, such as h/t, IMO, IMHO etc etc.
Not all those that you sue are common outside the USA.
Thanx
TFNJ
Thanks for your comment. Most of you are looking for can be found here:- http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page
Don’t forget “BEST”, or did I overlook it?
(I salute your efforts also.)
Thanks for taking the time to create this list; you just saved me some research time!
For those who may have missed the interesting lunchtime debate about global warming between Roy Spencer and Scott Deming at the Heartland Institute’s Climate Conference in Chicago earlier this week, here’s a link for it, but I don’t know how long it will remain active:
http://www.livestream.com/heartlandinstitute/video?clipId=pla_d8a55fac-fa64-4555-aa3c-b302a82b8c77&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
TOBS = Time of Day Observation Bias
Perhaps a section of the Glossary or even another selection under “Resources” that would list some of the names of those involved and what they did or do?
Why every where else on word press do I get a reply on comment’s but not here? Have I done something wrong
NO, but the glossary is not a place people should leave comments. Try an active thead.
Sorry was going to write to the mod’s or AW but could not find that on this site.
Hello Anthony. Suggest adding “ENSO”
Are you afraid to list BEST?
A definition of El Niño and La Niña would be helpful. I still get them mixed up.
El Nino = warm & La Nina = cold?
A very useful resource…how about adding:
HADCRUT
CRU
Alastair
This Glossary is not active.
For a more comprehensive listing see:-
Glossary of Acronyms
Bad link, and not in archive.org
I have links to several climate glossaries on my site, here:
http://www.sealevel.info/resources.html#references
Dave,
Here is a Wayback link to Climate Audit 101
Links to the Glossary etc. can be found here.
Thanks for pointing this out.
IOW…?
Located within the 7/15/18 post by A. Watts, I suggest the following addition to the glossary…
EAIS = Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet
Thanks
maybe ECS should be included in the glossary. i see it from time to time in posts. thanks