Due to popular demand (and thanks to Steve Fish), here is a list of commonly used acronyms on this site:
- ACC= Anthropogenic Climate Change
- AGU= American Geophysical Union
- AGW= Anthropogenic Global Warming or (less often) Atmospheric Gravity Waves
- AMO=Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
- AMS= American Meteorological Society
- AO= Arctic oscillation (very similar to NAO)
- AOGCM= Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model
- APS= American Physical Society
- AR4= Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)
- AR5= Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC) (due 2013)
- Argo float= Ocean temperature measuring device
- AVE= Atmospheric Vortex Engine
- BAU= Business As Usual
- BEST= Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project
- CCD= Carbonate Compensation Depth = depth at which carbonates dissolve in the ocean
- CCN= Cloud Condensation Nuclei
- CCS= Carbon Capture Storage
- CET= Central England Temperature
- CFR= Climate Field Reconstruction
- CME= Coronal Mass Ejections
- CRF= Cosmic Ray Flux
- CTD= Conductivity/Temperature/Depth. Probe for measuring ocean conditions
- CWC= Cloud (liquid) Water Content
- DTR= Diurnal Temperature Range
- ECS= Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (Charney sensitivity)
- EMR= Electromagnetic Radiation
- ENSO= El Niño-Southern Oscillation
- EROI= Energy Return on Investment
- ESS= Earth System Sensitivity = Whole system response to radiative forcing
- FOI= Freedom of Information Act
- GCM= Global Circulation/Climate Model (AOGCM)
- GCR= Galactic Cosmic Rays
- GFD= Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
- GFDL= Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (NOAA)
- GHE= Greenhouse Effect
- GHG= Greenhouse Gas
- GIS= Greenland Ice Sheet
- GISS= Goddard Institute for Space Studies (part of NASA)
- GISTEMP= GISS Surface Temperature Analysis
- GMST= Global Mean Surface Temperature (anomaly)
- GRL= Geophysical Research Letters (an AGU journal)
- GWP= Global Warming Potential
- HEV= Hybrid Electric Vehicle
- ICE= Internal Combustion Engine
- IERS= International Earth Rotation & Reference Systems Service
- IJOC= International Journal of Climatology
- IOC= Intergovernmental Oceanographic commission
- IPCC= Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- ISO= Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (synonymous with MJO)
- ISW= Ice Shelf Water
- ITCZ= Intertropical Convergence Zone
- JGR= Journal of Geophysical Research (an AGU journal)
- LGM= Last Glacial Maximum (about 20,000 years ago)
- LIA= Little Ice Age
- LTE= Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium
- LW= Longwave (infra-red radiation)
- MCA= Medieval Climate Anomaly
- MDR= Main Development Region (for Atlantic hurricanes)
- MJO= Madden-Julian Oscillation (or Intra-Seasonal Oscillation)
- MOC= Meridional Overturning Circulation (ocean)
- MWP= Medieval Warm Period (MCA is probably more apt)
- NAO= North Atlantic Oscillation
- NH= Northern Hemisphere
- OHC= Oceanic Heat Content
- OLR= (also OLW) Outgoing Longwave Radiation
- PCA= Principal Component Analysis
- PDF= Probability Density Function
- PDO= Pacific Decadal Oscillation
- PETM= Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum
- PHEV= Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle
- PNAS=Proceeding of the National Academies of Science (a journal)
- RCS= Regional Curve Standardization (method for processing tree ring data from different trees)
- RH= Relative Humidity
- RMS= Royal Meteorological Society (or Root Mean Square)
- SAM= Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (positive= wind belt around Antarctic stronger= colder)
- SAR= Second Assessment Report (IPCC)
- SLR= Sea level rise
- SOI= Southern Oscillation Index (see ENSO)
- SPE= Solar Proton Event
- SPM= Summary for Policy Makers (usually with respect to IPCC reports)
- SRM= Solar Radiation Management
- SSM= Standard Solar Model
- SST= Sea Surface Temperature
- STP= Standard Temperature and Pressure (a reference for physical properties)
- SW= Shortwave (solar) radiation
- TAR= Third Assessment Report (of the IPCC)
- TC= Tropical Cyclone (any hurricane)
- TCR= Transient Climate Response
- THC= Thermohaline Circulation (that driven by temp and salinity effects)
- TOA= Top-of-the-atmosphere
- TSI= Total Solar Irradiance
- WAIS= West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- WMO= World Meteorological Organization
- XBT= eXpendable Bathy-Thermograph (deep ocean temperature measuring devices)