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You are here: Home / Acronym index

Acronym index

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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