Acronym index

November 27th, 2009 by gavin

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)

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