AABW

Antarctic Bottom Water

AAIW

Antarctic Intermediate Water

AAM

Atmospheric Angular Momentum

AAMI

Atmospheric Angular Momentum Index

AAO

Antarctic Oscillation

ABARE

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics

ABD

Age Band Decomposition

AC1

Lag-one autocorrelation

AC

Arctic Council

ACC

Antarctic Circumpolar Current

ACE

Accumulated Cyclone Energy

ACF

Auto Correlation Function

ACI

Atmospheric Circulation Index

ACIA

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

ACR

Antarctic Cold Reversal

ACR

Atlantic Cyclogenesis Region (cyclones)

ADRF

Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing

AGCM

Atmospheric General Circulation Model

AGG

Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas

AGGI

NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index

AGHG

Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas

AGW

Anthropogenic Global Warming

AIDA

Abstract Interfaces for Data Analysis

AIDJEX

Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment NSIDC

AIMP

Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project

AIRF

Aerosol Indirect Radiative Forcing

AIRS

Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder

AIT

An Inconvenient Truth (TV documentary)

ALEPH

Apparatus for Large Electron Positron Physics

AMIP

Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project

AMM

Atlantic Meridional Mode

AMM

Atlantic Multidecadal Mode

AMO

Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (weather pattern).

AMS

American Meteorological Society

AMSR

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer

AMSR-E

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer

AMSU

Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit

AMU

Atomic Mass Unit

AO

Arctic Oscillation see also NAM

AOD

Aerosol Optical Depth

AOGCM

Atmospheric/Ocean General Circulation Model

AOOS Acronyms

Alaska Ocean Observing System Acronyms

AOT

Aerosol Optical Thickness

AR4

Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)

AR

Auto-Regression

ARF

Aerosol Radiative Forcing

ARIMA

Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model or process

ARM

Atmospheric Radiation Measurement 

ARMA

Autoregressive Moving Average model or process

ASOS

Automated Surface Observing System

ATIC

Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter

ATL

Atlantic Tropical Latitude

Atm

Atmosphere, atmospheric

AURA

Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

AU

Astronomical Unit (average distance of the Earth from the Sun)

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVIRIS

Airborne Visible InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (JPL)

AVO

Alaska Volcano Observatory

AWS

Automatic Weather Station

BADC

British Atmospheric Data Centre

BAHC

Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle

BAMS

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

BAS

British Antarctic Survey

BAU

"Business-as-Usual", IPCC scenario

BB

Black-body radiation

BCs

Boundary Conditions

BDE

Boolean Delay Equations

BEBC

Big European Bubble Chamber

BEST

Bivariate ENSO Time Series

BIC

Bayesian Information Criterion

BLUE

Best Linear Unbiased Estimation

BNL

Brookhaven National Laboratory

BOA

Bottom of the Atmosphere

BOM

Bureau of Meteorology (Australian Government)

BSRN

Baseline Surface Radiation Network

BT

Brightness Temperature

CAPE

Convective Available Potential Energy

CAR

Caribbean SST Index

CAS

Climate Analysis System

CC

Carbon Credit

CC

Climate Change

CCA

Canonical Correlation Analysis

CCD

Carbonate Compensation Depth (Oceanography)

CCD

Charge-Coupled Device (Astronomy)

CCE

Classical Calibration Estimation

CCN

Cloud Condensation Nuclei

CCSP

Climate Change Science Program

CCW

Counter-Clockwise

CDIAC

Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center

CDS

Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (SOHO)

CDW

Circumpolar Deep Water

CEI

Climate Extremes Index

CEPEX

Central Equatorial Pacific EXperiment, NCAR/EOL

CERES

Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (EOS)

CERN

Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire

CET

Central England Temperature

CFC

Chlorofluorocarbons, e.g., CClF3

CFD

Computational Fluid Dynamics

CFR

Climate Field Reconstruction.

CGCM

Coupled General Circulation Model

CH4

Methane

CHIPS

Coupled Hurricane Intensity Prediction System

CHL

Cold Halocline Layer.

CINE

Convection Inhibition Energy

CIRES

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, Colorado

CLIMAX

Cosmic-Radiation Neutron Intensity Monitor in Climax, Colorado, USA

CLIVAR

Climate Variability and Predictability, a WCRP program

CLIWOC

Climatological database for the world's oceans (1750-1850)

CLT

Central Limit Theorem

CMAP

Climate Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction study

CME

Coronal Mass Ejection (solar phenomenon)

CMIP

Coupled Model Intercomparison Project

CMOS

Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

CN

Condensation Nuclei

CO

Carbon Monoxide ( Poison)

CO2

Carbon Dioxide

CONUS

CONterminus United States

CoP

Climate of the Past

CORDIS

Community Research and Development Information Service

COT

Cloud Optical Thickness

CP

Cloud top pressure

CPC

Climate Prediction Center National Weather Service, NOAA, (US)

CPS

Composite-Plus-Scale, a method of Multivariate Calibration

CPSST

Cross Product Sea Surface Temperature

CR

Cosmic ray(s)

CRE

Cloud Radiative Effect

CRF

Cosmic Ray Flux

CRII

Cosmic Ray Induced Ionisation

CRN

Climate Reference Network (USA)

CRU

Climatic Research Unit attached to the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

CRUTEM

Land Temperature Record from CRU

CSIRO

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia)

CSM

NCAR GCM, includes CSM2 and CSM3

CT

Cloud top temperature

CUP

Computational Uncertainty Principle

CVM

Composite plus Variance Method (for analyzing proxies)

CVM

Composite plus Variance Matching

CWP

Current Warm Period

CYA

Cover Your Ass

4D-Var

Four dimensional Variational data assimilation

DACP

Dark Ages Cold Period

DADS

Data Archive and Distribution System

DALR

Dry-adiabatic lapse rate

DEAD

Dust Entrainment And Deposition

DECR

Drought Exceptional Circumstances Report 2008, CSIRO, BOM, Australian Government

DEFRA

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK

DEM

Digital Elevation Model

DFA

Detrended Fluctuation Analysis

DIC

Dissolved Inorganic Carbon

DJF

December, January, February (winter)

DLF

Downward Longwave Flux

DLW

Downwelling Long Wave radiation

DMS

DiMethyl Sulfide

DMSP

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program

DNS

Direct Numerical Simulation

DNS

Domain Name System

DNV

Det Norske Veritas

D/O

Dansgaard-Oeschger event

DOE

Department of Energy (US)

DQA

Data Quality Act (US)

DSV

Decadal Scale Variability

DTR

Diurnal Temperature Range

DU

Dobson unit, (measurement of atmospheric ozone)

DVI

Dust Veil Index

DW

Durbin-Watson statistic

DWD

Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Meteorological Service)

EAR

Equatorial Atmospheric Radar

EAS

School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech

EBM

Energy Balance Model

EBTC

Energy Balance ThermoCouple

EBW

Equivalent bandwidth

ECMWF

European Centre for Midrange Weather Forecast Model

EDF

Equivalent Degrees of Freedom

EE

Energy and Environment (journal)

EEP

Eastern Equatorial Pacific

EGHE

Enhanced GreenHouse Effect

EIA

Equatorial Ionization Anomaly

EIR

Environmental Information Regulations UK

EIT

Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SOHO)

EIV

Error-in-Variables

ELR

Environmental lapse rate

EMD

Empirical Mode Decomposition, a signal-processing technique

EMIC

Earth System Model of Intermediate Complexity

ENSO

El Nino - Southern Oscillation.

EOF

Empirical Orthogonal Factor

EOF

Empirical Orthogonal Function

Eos

Eos - Transactions of the American Geophysical Union

EOS

Earth Observation Satellite JAXA

EOSDIS

Earth Observing System Data and Information System

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.)

EPAC

Eastern Pacific

ERBE

Earth Radiation Budget Experiment

ERSST

Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature

ESRL

Earth System Research Laboratory

ET

EvapoTranspiration

ETA

Equatorial Temperature Anomaly

EULA

End User Licence Agreement

EUMETSAT

EUropean organization for the exploitation of METeorological SATellites

EWMA

Exponentially Weighted Moving Average

FACE

Free Air Concentration Enrichment

FAR

First Assessment Report IPCC 1990

FAR

Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)

FARIMA

Fractional AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average process.

FARS

Federal Acquisition Regulations System USA

FASCODE

FAST Atmospheric Signature CODE

FASE

FASCODE for the Environment

FEI

Full Equinox Interval: September 16th thru 26th

FFP

Fit For Purpose

FFT

Fast Fourier Transform

FIR

Finite-duration Impulse Response filter

FLIR

Forward Looking InfraRed

FMEA

Failure mode and effects analysis

FOI, FOIA

Freedom Of Information Act

FOS

Friends of Science

FTE

Flux Transfer Event

FTE

Full-time_equivalent

FTIR

Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy

FTS

Fourier Transform Spectroscopy

FUV

Far Ultraviolet

GAIM

Global Analysis, Integration and Modelling

GAO

Government Accountability Office (U.S.)

GAT

Global Air Temperature

GAW

Global Atmosphere Watch

GCC

Global Carbon Cycle

GCM

General Circulation Model (Global Climate Model)

GCM

Global Circulation Model

GCOS

Global Climate Observing System

GCR

Galactic Cosmic Ray

GCR

Galactic Cosmic Radiation

GCRI

Greenhouse Climate Response Index (U.S.)

GCTE

Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems

GDAS

Global Data Assimilation System

GDD

Growing Degree Day (agriculture)

GEC

Global Electric Circuit.

GEM

Global Environmental Multiscale Model

GEV

Generalized Extreme Value distribution

GEWEX

Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment of the WCRP

GFD

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

GFDL

Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

GFS

Global Forecast System model

GHCN

Global Historical Climate Network

GHCN

Global Historical Climatology Network

GHE

Greenhouse effect

GHG

Green House Gases

GIGO

Garbage In, Garbage Out

GIS

Geographic Information System

GISS

Goddard Institute for Space Studies, also their temperature dataset

GISSE

One of the GISS GCMs, which include E, F20, F23, M20, etc.

GISTEMP

GISS Surface Temperature Analysis

GLE

Global Lyapunov Exponent

GLODAP

Global Ocean Data Analysis Project

GLRIP

Global Lake and River Ice Phenology database

GMS

Geostationary Meteorological Satellite

GMST

Global Mean Surface Temperature

GMT

Greenwich Mean Time (repl. by UTC)

GOES

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GOM

Gulf of Mexico

GOSTA

Global Ocean Surface Temperature Atlas

GPCP

Global Precipitation Climatology Project

GPP

Global Primary Production, total uptake of carbon by plant leaves

GPS

Global Positioning System

GPS-RO

Global Positioning System - Radio Occultation.

GRIP

Greenland Ice Core Project

GRL

Geophysical Research Letters (journal)

GSDM

Global Synoptic-Dynamic Model

GSN

GCOS Surface Network

GSN

Group Sunspot Number

GSR

Gram-Schmidt Reorthogonalization

Gt

Giga-tonne, 10^9 tonnes

GT

Georgia Institute of Technology

GTE

Global Thermodynamic Equilibrium

GUT

Grand Unification Theory

GW

Global Warming

Gw

Giga-watt (10^9 watts)

GWD

Gravity Wave Drag

GWO

Global Wind Oscillation

GWP

Global Warming Potential

H

Hurst exponent

HadCRUT

Combined land sea temperature database from the CRU

HadISST

Ice coverage and SST database from CRU

HALOE

Halogen Occultation Experiment

HAO

High Altitude Observatory ESSL, NCAR

HAPEX

Hydrology-Atmosphere Pilot Experiment in the Sahel, 1990-1992

HCFC

Hydrochlorofluorocarbon, E.G., CHClF2

HCS

Heliospheric Current Sheet

HHI

Hurricane Hazard Index

HII

Hurricane Intensity Index

HITRAN

HIgh-resolution TRANsmission molecular absorption database, a compilation of spectroscopic parameters

HMF

Heliospheric Magnetic Field

HNLC

High Nitrate and Low Chlorophyll

Hockey Team

Mann, Bradley, Hughes, Esper, Briffa, Schmidt, Thompson, those who support the Hockeystick

hPa

hecto Pascals (pressure measurement)

H-P filter

Hodrick-Prescott filter

HS

Hockeystick, see MBH98

HSI

Hurricane Surge Index

HTM

Holocene Thermal Maximum

HWRF

Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model

IAAFT

Iterative Amplitude Adjusted Fourier Transform

IANAS

I am not a statistician

IB

Inverted Barometer (sea level)

ICE

inverse calibration estimation

ICE

Inverse Calibration Estimator

ICOADS

International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set

ICs

Initial Conditions

IDF

Intensity-Duration-Frequency (precipitation).

IGBP

International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme

IGD

Ice age - Gas age Difference (delta Age)

IGY

International Geophysical Year (1st July 1957 thru 31st December 1958)

IID

Independent and Identically Distributed random variables

IIF

International Institute of Forecasters

IIN

Ion-Induced Nucleation

IIRC

If I recall correctly

IJoC

International Journal of Climatology

IKE

Integrated Kinetic Energy (Tropical cyclone destructive potential)

IMF

Interplanetary Magnetic Field

IMHO

In my humble opinion

IN

Ice Nucleus

INPE

Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais National Institute for Space Research, Brazil

INQUA

International Union for Quaternary Research

InSAR

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

INVR

Inverse Regression (reconstruction method)

IO

Indian Ocean

IOC

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

IOD

Indian Ocean Dipole

IOOC

Integrated Ocean Observing System

IOP

Institute of Physics

IOS

International Organization for Standardization

IOW

In Other Words

IP

Internet Protocol

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPO

Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation

IPR

Intellectual property rights

IR

Infrared (radiation)

IRD

Ice-Rafted Debris

ISCCP

International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project

ISES

International Solar Energy Society

ISI

Institute for Scientific Information

ISM

Indian Summer Monsoon

ISN

International Sunspot Number

ISO

Intraseasonal Oscillations

ITCZ

Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone

ITRDB

International Tree Ring Data Bank

IWV

Integrated Water Vapour

JAS

July, August, September

Jason

Radar sea level measuring satellite

J Clim

Journal of Climate

JJA

June, July, August (summer)

Jones

Phil Jones of CRU

JORC

Joint Ore Reserves Committee, Minerals Council of Australia, Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, Australian Institute of Geosciences

JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)

JRA-25

Japanese 25-year ReAnalysis

Jz

Electrical Current density (J) in the vertical (z-axis) direction

K

Kelvin

K, Kp

K-index (Geomagnetic activity index)

K/T

Kiehl/Trenberth global energy balance model

Ka

Kilo annum (1,000 years)

KISS

Keep It Simple, Stupid

KNMI

Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute)

LACC

Low Altitude Cloud Cover

LANL

Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico USA

LASP

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

LBL

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, California)

LBT

Ljung-Box Test

LCC

Land Cover Change

LCL

Lifted Condensation Level

LDEO

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University, City of New York, USA

LDR

Longwave Downwelling Radiation

LEP

Large Electron-Positron Collider

LEPS

Limited-area ensemble prediction systems

LES

Large Eddy Simulation

LFC

Level of Free Convection

LFD

Low-Frequency Density

LFO

Low-Frequency Oscillation

LFS

Local Fitting Software

LFV

Low-Frequency Variability

LGM

Last Glacial Maximum

LHS

Left-Hand Side

LI

Lifted Index

LIA

Little Ice Age (Maunder Minimum)

LIDAR

Light Detection and Ranging

LLE

Local Lyapunov Exponent

LLGHG

Long-lived greenhouse gases, eg CO2, not water vapor

LLN

Law of Large Numbers

LMS

Least Mean Squares

LNB

Level of Neutral Buoyancy

LOD

Length of Day

LOI

Loss On Ignition

LOSU

Level Of Scientific Understanding

LQE

Linear Quadratic Estimation.

LRD

Long-Range Dependence.

LRGIE

Local mean Relative Growth of Initial Error

LSC

Length of Sunspot Cycle

LST

Local Solar Time

LTE

Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium

LTP

Long-Term Persistence

LTRR

Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona

LTS

Lower Tropospheric Stability

LUC

Land-Use Change

LUCC

Land Use Cover Change

LW,LWR

Longwave (infrared) "greenhouse" radiation

LWC

Liquid Water Content

M&M/MM

Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick

MA

Moving Average

MAGICC

Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse-gas Induced Climate Change

MALR

Moist adiabatic lapse rate

MAM

March, April, May (spring)

Mannomatic

Michael Mann's mathematical method used in MBH98

MAT

Marine Air Temperature

MAVEN

Mars Atmosphere and Volatiles EvolutioN

mb, mbar

millibar (pressure)

MBH98

The Mann, Bradley & Hughes (1998) Hockeystick study

MC

Monte Carlo method

MCA

Maximum Covariance Analysis

MCDW

Monthly Climate Data of the World, WMO

MCSST

Multi-Channel Sea Surface Temperature

MDI

Michelson Doppler Imager (SOHO)

MDL

Minimum Description Length

MDR

Main Development Region (hurricanes)

ME

Maximum Entropy

MEI

Multivariate ENSO Index

MEM

Maximum Entropy Spectral Method (mathematics)

Meridional

Longitudinal Direction (north-south)

MESA

Maximum Entropy Spectral Analysis (Sun-Spot Cycles)

METAR

MÉTéorologique Aviation Régulière (Aviation routine weather report)

MFP

Mean free path

Mg/Ca

Magnesium/Calcium seashell proxy record

MHD

Magnetohydrodynamics

MIPT

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

MJO

Madden-Julian Oscillation

MLE

Maximum Likelihood Estimation

MLO

Mauna Loa Observatory, CO2 measuring station

MM

Maunder Minimum

MMSE

Minimum Mean Square Error

MMTS

Maximum-Minimum Temperature System (meteorology)

M.O.

Modus operandi

MOC

Meridional Overturning Circulation

MODIS

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (satellite instrument)

MODTRAN

MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission computer program

MOE

Margin of Error

MOHSST6

Met Office Historical Sea Surface Temperature (UK)

MOMMDB

Meteorological Office Main Marine Data Bank. See Correction of Instrumental Biases in Historical Sea Surface Temperature Data

MOS

Model Output Statistics

MPA

Mobile Polar Anticyclone

MPT

Mid-Pleistocene Transition

MSD

Mean Square Differences

MSE

Mean Squared Error

MSI

Multi-Spectral Imagery

MSIS

Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter

MSL

Mean Sea Level

MSLP

Mean Sea-Level Pressure

MSM

Mainstream Media

MSSA

Multi-channel Singular Spectrum Analysis

MSU

Microwave Sounding Unit (satellite instrument for temperature measurement)

MTM

Midnight Temperature Maximum

MTM

MultiTaper Method

MWP

Medieval Warm Period

MXD

Maximum Latewood Density

N2O

Nitrous Oxide

NADW

North Atlantic Deep Water

NAM

Northern Annular Mode

NAO

North Atlantic Oscillation

NARR

North American Regional Reanalysis

NAS

National Academy of Sciences (US)

NASA

National Aeronautic and Space Agency

NAT

Nitric Acid Trihydrate

NATL

North Atlantic

NATL

North Atlantic Tropical Latitude

NCAR

National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCDC

National Climatic Data Center

NCEP

National Centers for Environmental Prediction (US)

NDIR

Non Dispersive InfraRed

NERC

Natural Environment Research Council (UK)

NF3

Nitrogen trifluoride (industrial gas)

NGDC

National Geophysical Data Center

NGO

Non-Governmental Organization

NH

Northern Hemisphere

NHC

National Hurricane Center

NINO3.4

El Niño 3.4 Index (scroll to bottom of page)

NIO

North Indian Ocean

NIR

Near Infra-red (radiation)

NLLE

Nonlinear Local Lyapunov Exponent

NLSST

Non-Linear SST

NM

Neutron Monitor

NMAT

Nighttime Marine Air Temperature

NO

Nitric Oxide

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAMER

North America

NOI

Northern Oscillation Index

NOMADS

National Operational Model Archive & Distribution System

NOx

Nitric Oxide (x means the number of oxygens varies: 1,2,2.5)

NP

North Pacific Pattern Index

NPO

North Pacific Oscillation

NPV

Northern Polar Vortex

NSDL

National Science Digital Library

NSE

Navier-Stokes Equations

NSF

National Science Foundation (US)

NSIDC

National Snow and Ice Data Center

NSIPP

NASA Seasonal-Interannual Prediction Project

NSO

National Solar Observatory

NTA

North Tropical Atlantic Index

NVAP

NASA Water Vapor Project

NWF

Numerical Weather Forecast

NWP

NorthWest Passage

NWP

Numerical Weather Prediction

NWS

National Weather Service

O2

Oxygen Gas

O3

Ozone Gas

OC

Organic Carbon

OCMIP

Ocean Carbon-Cycle Model Intercomparison Project

OCO

Orbiting Carbon Observatory

OD

Optical Depth

ODE

Ordinary Differential Equation

Ofcom

Office of Communications U.K. Communications Industry Regulator

OGCM

Oceanic General Circulation Model

OH

Hydroxyl radicals

OHC

Ocean Heat Content

OHCA

Ocean Heat Content Anomaly

OI

Optimal Interpolation

OLR

Outgoing Longwave Radiation

OLS

Ordinary least squares

OM

Organic Matter (diesel pollution component)

OMI

Ozone Monitoring Instrument

OMR

Observation Minus Reanalysis

ONI

Oceanic Nino Index (for the Pacific region 5N-5S:120W-170W)

OPAC

Optical Properties of Aerosol and Cloud

ORNL

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

OT

Off-Topic

OTOH

On the other hand

PAGES

Past Global Changes

PBL

Planetary Boundary Layer

PC

Principal Component

PCA

Principal Component Analysis

PCMDI

Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison at LLNL

PCR

Pacific Cyclogenesis Region (cyclones)

PCs

Principal Components

PDE

Partial Differential Equation

PDF

Probability Distribution Function

PDI

Palmer Drought Index (Moisture)

PDI

Power Dissipation Index (cyclones)

PDO

Pacific Decadal Oscillation

PE

Primitive Equations

PETM

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

PFJ

Polar Front jet,

Pg

Petagram, 10^15 grams, 1 Pg = 1 Gt

PGEs

Planetary Geostrophic Equations

PGR

Post-Glacial Rebound of continents previously covered by ice (sea level)

PIP

Principal Interaction Pattern

PIPO

Pinus ponderosae

PIR

Precision Infrared Radiometer

PLSR

Partial Least Squares Regression

PMOD

Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos - World Radiation Center, Switzerland

PNA

Pacific/North American Teleconnection Index

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (journal)

POD

Period of Data

POES

Polar Operational Environmental Satellite

POP

Principal Oscillation Pattern

POV

Point of view

PPT

Powerpoint Presentation

Probability Theory

Probability Theory As Extended Logic (Washington University in St Louis)

PSC

Polar Stratospheric Clouds (aka nacreous clouds)

PSMSL

Permanent Service for the Mean Sea Level

PWD

Planetary Wave Drag

QA

Quality Assurance

QBO

Quasi-Biennial zonal wind Oscillation

QC

Quality Control

QG

Quasi-Geostrophic

QJRMS

Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

QPF

Quantitative Precipitation Forecast

QUANGO

QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation

RADAR

RAdio Detection And Ranging

RANS

Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes

RAOBCORE

RAdiosonde OBservation COrrection using REanalyses

RAWS

Remote Automated Weather Station

RC

RealClimate website

RCM

Regional Climate Model

RCN

Reference Climate Network

RCS

Regional Curve Standardization tree ring standardization method

RE

Reduction of Error metric.

READER

REference Antarctic Data for Environmental Research, British Antarctic Survey

REF

Relativistic Electron Flux

RegEM

Regularized expectation maximization algorithm

RGIE

Relative Growth of the Initial Error

RH

Relative Humidity

RHS

Right-Hand Side

RLR

Revised Local Reference (sea level)

RMM

Real-time Multivariate MJO (Madden-Julian Oscillation)

RMSE

Root mean square error (Sqrt[Sum-Of-N ([residuals]^2))/N])

RNG

Random number generator

ROW

Rest of World

RPCA

Rotated Principal Component Analysis

RSS

Remote Sensing Systems, Inc.

RST

Remote Sensing Tutorial, NASA

RTFR

Read the Friggin' Rules!

RTG

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

RW

Random Walk

RW

Ring Width (tree rings)

RWP

Roman Warm Period (250-0 BC)

s2

Serial Correlation

SAC-D

Aquarius SAC-D Satellite Mission

SALR

Saturated adiabatic lapse rate

SAM

Southern Annular Mode

SAMW

SubAntarctic Mode Water

SAP

Synthesis and Assessment Products

SAR

Second Assessment Report (IPCC)

SAR

Synthetic Aperture Radar

SAT

Surface Air Temperature

SAZ

SubAntarctic Zone

SC

Solar Cycle

SCENGEN

A regional climate SCENario GENerator

SCL

Solar Cycle Length

SCR

Solar Cosmic Rays

SD

Standard Deviation

se

Standard error (statistics)

SEM

Standard Error of the Mean

SEP

Solar Energetic Particles

SF6

Sulfur Hexafluoride (a very inert dense gas)

SH

Southern Hemisphere

SH

Specific Humidity

SHAP

Station History Adjustment Program

SHIPS

Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme, National Weather Service, NOAA

SHMA

Southern Hemisphere Magnetic Anomaly

SI

Supplemental Information

SIC

Schwarz Information Criterion

sigma

Standard Error

SIM

Solar Inertial Motion

SIO

Southern Indian Ocean

SLP

Sea Level Pressure

SLWC

Supercooled Liquid Water Content

SMB

Surface Mass Balance (Icesheet Dynamics)

SMMR

Scanning Multi-channel Microwave Radiometer

SMMR Acronym

Scanning Multi-channel Microwave Radiometer Acronym List

SN

Sunspot Number see also ISN

SO2

Sulfur Dioxide (becomes SO3 in air)

SO3

Sulfur Trioxide (becomes Sulfuric Acid in humid air)

SOC

Self-Organised Criticality

SOCC

State of the Canadian Cryosphere

SOHO

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

SOI

Southern Oscillation Index

SOI

Supplemental Online Information

SOLAS

Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study

SOLCON

Solar Constant Observations

SOM

Soil Organic Matter

SOMOC

Southern Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation

SON

September, October, November (Autumn)

SOP

Standard Operating Procedure

SORCE

Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment

SPAC

South Pacific

SPARC

Stratospheric Processes And their Role in Climate, another WCRP program

SPCZ

South Pacific Convergence Zone

SPE

Solar Proton Events

SPM

Summary for Policymakers

SPV

Southern Polar Vortex

SQA

Software Quality Assurance

SR

Schumann Resonances

SRES

Special Report on Emissions Scenarios

SS

Sea Salt (climate forcing)

SSA

Singular Spectrum Analysis (mathematics)

SSE

Sum of Squared Errors

SSH

Sea surface height

SSHS

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

SSI

Solar Spectral Irradience

SSI

Space/Satellite System Integrator

SSMI

Special Sensor Microwave Imager

SSN

Wolf or International Standard Sunspot Number.

SSS

Sea Surface Salinity

SST

Sea Surface Temperature

SSTA

Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies

SSW

Sudden Stratospheric Warmings

STJ

Subtropical jet

STP

Short-term Persistence

STP

Solar Terrestrial Probes

STP

Standard Temperature and Pressure

STS

Sub-Tropical Storms

Sv

Sverdrup (flow rate = 1 million cubic meters per second)

SVAT

Soil Vegetation Atmosphere Transfer Scheme

SVD

Singular Value Decomposition

SVD

Singular Vector Decomposition

SW

Shortwave radiation (solar)

SWAG

Scientific Wild Ass Guess

SWPC

Space Weather Prediction Center

TAR

Third Assessment Report (IPCC)

Tau τ

Optical depth τ

TBL

Time Boundary Layer

TC

Tropical Cyclone

TCHP

Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential

TF

Thermodynamic Forcing

Tg

Tera-gram, 10^12 grams

TGGWS, GGWS

The Great Global Warming Swindle (UK Channel4 TV documentary)

TGNES

Task Group on New Emission Scenarios, IPCC

THC

Thermohaline Circulation

THEMIS

Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms Understanding Space Weather, NASA

TIR

Thermal InfraRed.

TIROS

Television Infrared Observation Satellite

TLE

Transient luminous event upper atmosphere electrical phenomena

TLM

Tangent Linear Model

TLS

Total Least Squares

TLT

Temperature Lower Troposphere

TMT

Temperature Middle Troposphere

TNA

Tropical North Atlantic Index

TNI

Trans-Niño Index

TOA

Top of the Atmosphere

TOB

Time of Observation Bias

TOBS

Time of Observation Bias Software

TOE

Theory Of Everything

TOMS

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (satellite instrument)

TOPEX

TOPography EXPeriment (Radar sea level measuring satellite)

TOVS

Tiros Operational Vertical Sounder (NASA satellite instrument)

TP

Thiessen Polygons

TPC

Time Projection Chamber

TRH

Threshold Relative Humidity

TRW

Tree Ring Width

TSA

Tropical South Atlantic Index

TSI

Total Solar Irradiance

TSSM

Total Sum of Squares about the Mean

TSU

Technical Support Unit, Working Group 1, IPCC

Tsurf

Surface Temperature

TT

Tropospheric Temperature.

TTFN

Ta-ta for now (Goodbye)

TTLS

Truncated Total Least Squares, a RegEM regression option.

Tw

Tera-watt (10^12 watts)

UAH

University of Alabama Huntsville

UARS

Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

UBC

Upper Boundary Condition

UCAR

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

UCN

Ultrafine Condensation Nuclei

UFA

Unidentified Faulty Algorithm

UHI

Urban Heat Island

UIUC

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ulysses

Ulysses probe

UNFCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Unix

Uniplexed Operating and Computing System.

UOP

UCAR Office of Programs,

USHCN

United States Historical Climate Network

UTC

Universal Time Coordinated, time independent of the local time zone

UTH

Upper Tropospheric Humidity

UV

Ultraviolet (radiation)

VAI

Vorticity Area Index

VEI

Volcanic Explosivity Index

ViRBO

Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory

VKV

Von Karman Vortices

VSMOW

Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water

W

Watt

WAIS

West Antarctic Ice Sheet

WCRP

World Climate Research Programme

WDC

World Data Center

WDCG

World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases

WDCP

World Data Center for Paleoclimatology

WEP

Western Equatorial Pacific

WG1

Working Group 1: The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change, IPCC

WGCM

WCRP Working Group on Coupled Models

WGNE

Working Group on Numerical Experimentation, a joint program of WCRP and WMO-CAS

WGS

World Geodetic System

WHOI

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

WHWP

Western Hemisphere Warm Pool

WIP

Work In Progress

WMO

World Meteorological Organization

WP

Warm Pool

WPAC

Western Pacific

WRF

Weather Research and Forecasting model

WRMC

World Radiation Monitoring Center

WRP

Weather Research Program

WRT

With Respect To

YD

Younger Dryas

YMMV

Your Mileage May Vary

YTD

year to date

YVO

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

Zonal

Latitudinal Direction (west-east)