Glossary

The Glossary explains acronyms used on the WMO Space Programme Website. The fastest way is to start typing the keyword you are looking for, the table then filters the results.

Acronym	Definition	Comment
AAPP	AVHRR & ATOVS Pre-processing Package	Software developed by NWP SAF
AATSR	Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer	Instrument on Envisat
ABI	Advanced Baseline Imager	Instrument on GOES-R series
ABS	Advanced Baseline Sounder
ACE	Atmospheric Climate Experiment
ADEOS	ADvanced Earth Observing Satellite	JAXA satellite
ADM	Advanced Dissemination Methods	WMO, IGDDS
ADM-Aeolus	Atmospheric Dynamics Mission	ESA satellite
AHRPT	Advanced HRPT	Metop dissemination standard
AIRS	Advanced Infra-Red Sounder	Instrument on Aqua, NASA
ALOS	Advanced Land Observing Satellite	JAXA satellite
AM	Ante Meridian	Before noon
AMESD	African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development	PUMA follow-on
AMSR-E	Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer / EOS	JAXA instrument on Aqua (NASA)
AMSU	Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit	Instrument on NOAA/POES and Metop
AMV	Atmospheric Motion Vector	Level 3 product
AOPC	Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate	GCOS
APT	Automatic Picture Transmission	NOAA/POES,analog transmission
Aqua	NASA Earth Observation Satellite in p.m. orbit	NASA, EOS pm
ARGOS	Data collection and location system on NOAA/POES	CLS
ASAP	Automated Shipboard Aerological Programme
ASCAT	Advanced Scatterometer	Instrument on Metop
ASMET	African Satellite Meteorology Education and Training	Computer Aided Learning
ASTER	Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer	Instrument on Terra
ATBD	Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document	GSICS
ATMS	Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder	Instrument on NPP and NPOESS
ATOVS	Advanced TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder	Instrument suite on NOAA/POES and Metop
ATS	Applications Technology Satellite	Demonstrator for GEO satellites before GOES
ATSR	Along Track Scanning Radiometer	Instrument on ERS
AVHRR	Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer	Instrument on NOAA/POES, Metop
AWI	Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research	Germany
AWIPS	Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System	NOAA, USA
BOM	Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)	Australia
BUFR	Binary Universal Form for data Representation	Codes and Format
CALIOP	Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization	CALIPSO satellite
CAST	Chinese Academy of Space Technology	Partner in CBERS development (China)
CBERS	China - Brazil Earth Resources Satellite	INPE (Brazil) and CAST (China)
CBS	Commission for Basic Systems	WMO
CCAR	Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (USA)
CCD	Charged Couple Device	Type of camera flown on several meteorological satellites
CCRS	Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
CEOS	Comittee on Earth Observation Satellites	www.ceos.org
CERES	Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System	Instrument on Aqua, Terra, NPOESS-1
CFC	Chlorofluorocarbon
CGMS	Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites	cgms.wmo.int
CHAMP	CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload for magnetic & gravity field measurement	DLR (Germany) and CNES (France)
CHRPT	China's High Resolution Picture Transmission	Specific HRPT implementation
CIMSS	Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies	University of Wisconsin, USA
CIRA	Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere	Colorado State University, USA
CLS	Collecte, Localisation Satellites	DCS operator (France)
CM	Consultative Meeting on High-level Policy on Satellite Matters
CMA	China Meteorological Administration	China
CME	Coronal Mass Ejection	Space Weather
CMI	Climate Moisture Index
CMIS	Conically Scanning Microwave Imager / Sounder	Planned instrument for NPOESS
CMS	Centre de Météorologie Spatiale (France)	Meteo-France
CNES	Centre Nationale d’Etudes Spatiales	French National Space Agency
CNSA	China National Space Administration	China
CoE	Centre of Excellence	Virtual Laboratory, Training
COMET	Cooperative programme for Operational Meteorology Education & Training	UCAR
CONAE	Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales	Argentina
COPUOS	United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space	UN-OOSA
COSMIC	Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate	UCAR
CPTEC	Centreo de Prévision del Tiempo y Estudios Climaticas	Brazil, INPE
CrIS	Cross track Infrared Sounder	Instrument on NPP and NPOESS
CZCS	Coastal Zone Colour Scanner	Ocean colour demonstrator on Nimbus-7 (NASA)
DCP	Data Collection Platform	See DCS
DCPC	Data Collection or Production Centre	WIS component, WMO
DCRS	Data Collection and Retransmission Service	See DCS
DCS	Data Collection System
DLR	Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt	German Aerospace Centre
DMI	Danish Meteorological Institute	Denmark
DNMI	Norwegian Meteorological Institute	Norway
DMSP	Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (USA)	USA
DVB-S	Digital Video Broadcast by Satellite	Telecommunication standard
DWD	Deutscher Wetterdienst	German national meteorological service
DWSS	Defense Weather Satellite System	USA, DOD
EARS	EUMETSAT Advanced Retransmission Service	EUMETSAT, RARS
ECMWF	European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts	www.ecmwf.int
EC-PORS	Executive Council Panel of Experts on Polar Operations Research and Services	GCW
ECT	Equatorial Crossing Time	Local solar time of equator crossing (fixed for sun-synchronous orbits)
ECV	Essential Climate Variable	GCOS
ENSO	El Niño Southern Oscillation
ENVISAT	Environmental Satellite	ESA satellite
EOS	Earth Observation Satellite	See: Aqua, Terra, Aura
EPS	EUMETSAT Polar System	See: Metop, EUMETSAT
ERB	Earth Radiation Budget
ERS	European Remote-sensing Satellite	ESA satellite
ESA	European Space Agency	www.esa.int
ESRC	Environmental Satellite Resource Center	ESRC, COMET, UCAR, VL
ET-EGOS	Expert Team on the Evolution of the Global Observing system	CBS, WMO
ET-SAT	Expert Team on Satellite Systems	CBS, WMO
ET-SUP	Expert Team on Satellite Utilisation and Products	CBS, WMO
EUMETSAT	European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites	eumetsat.int
EUV	Extreme Ultra Violet
fAPAR	Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation	Vegetation product
FMI	Finnish Meteorological Institute	Finland
FNMOC	Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center	US Navy
FOV	Field of View
FTP	File Transfer Protocol
FY-1,3	Feng Yun- 1,3 (Chinese polar orbiting meteorological satellite series)	CMA
FY-2,4	Feng Yun-2, 4 (Chinese geostationary satellite series)	CMA
GAW	Global Atmospheric Watch	WMO, Atmospheric Chemistry
GCC	GSICS Coordination Centre	GSICS
GCOM	Global Change Observation Mission	JAXA
GCOS	Global Climate Observing System	WMO, UNESCO/IOC, UNEP, ICSU
GCW	Global Cryosphere Watch
GDPS	Global Data processing System	WMO
GDSIDB	Global Digital Sea Ice Database,	WMO, IOC, JCOMM
GDWG	GSICS Data Management Working Group	GSICS
GEO	Geostationary orbit
GEO	Group on Earth Observations	www.earthobservations.org
GEOSS	Global Earth Observation System of Systems	GEO
GERB	Geostationary Earth radiation Budget instrument	Instrument on MSG
GEWEX	Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment	WCRP
GFCS	Global Framework for Climate Services
GHRSST	Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature	GODAE
GHz	Giga-Hertz
GIFTS	Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer	NASA developed instrument
GIIPSY	Global Interagency IPY Polar Snapshot Year project	IPY
GISC	Global Information System Centre	WIS component, WMO
GLAS	Geoscience Laser Altimeter System	IceSat, NASA
GLI	Global Imager	JAXA
GLONASS	Global Navigation Satellite System (Russian)	Russian federation
GMES	Global Monitoring of Environment and Security	European Union and ESA
GMS	Geostationary Meteorological Satellites (Japan)	MTSAT, Japan
GNSS	Global Navigation Satellite System	GPS
GODAE	Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment
GOES	Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (USA)	NOAA/NESDIS, USA
GOME	Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment	Instrument on ERS-2
GOMOS	Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars	Instrument on Envisat
GOMS	Geostationary Operational Meteorological Satellite	Russian Federation
GOOS	Global Ocean Observation System	UNESCO/IOC, WMO, UNEP, ICSU
GOS	Global Observing System	A WWW component, WMO
GPCP	Global Precipitation Climatology Project	GEWEX, WCRP
GPM	Global Precipitation Measurement	NASA-JAXA programme
GPRC	GSICS Processing and Research Centre	GSICS
GPSOS	Global Positioning System Occultation Sensor
GPS	Global Positioning System
GPS/MET	Meteorological applications of GPS
GRACE	Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment	NASA
GRAS	GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding	Metop, GPS/Met
GRB	GOES Re-Broadcast ( GOES-R dissemination system)	NOAA
GRWG	GSICS Research Working Group	GSICS
GSFC	Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA)	NASA
GSICS	Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System	WMO - CGMS project
GTS	Global Telecommunications System	A WWW component, WMO
GTZ	Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (Germany)	Germany
GVAR	GOES Variable Format	NOAA
HDF	Hierarchical Data Format	Format
HEO	Highly Elliptical Orbit	e.g. Molniya orbit
HIRS	High resolution Infrared Sounder	Instrument on NOAA/POES, Metop
hPa	hecto-Pascal	Unit of atmospheric pressure otherwise known as millibar
HR	High resolution
HRC	High Resolution Camera	Instrument on CBERS-2B
HRIT	High Rate Information Transmission (dissemination standard for GEO)	Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS
HRPT	High Resolution Picture Transmission (dissemination standard for LEO)	Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS
HSB	Humidity Sounder - Brazil	Instrument on Aqua
IASI	Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer	Instrument on Metop
ICSU	International Council for Science
ICTSW	Inter-programme Coordination Team on Space Weather	WMO CBS, CAeM
IDCS	International Data Collection System	DCS
IGBP	International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
IGDDS	Integrated Global Data Dissemination Service	WMO, WIS
IGEOLab	International Geostationary Laboratory for demonstration missions	Cooperation concept
IGOS-P	Integrated Global Observing Strategy - Partnership
IJPS	Initial Joint Polar System	NOAA, EUMETSAT
ILAS-II	Improved Limb Atmospheric Sounder	Instrument on ADEOS II
IMD	India Meteorological Department	India
IMOP	Instruments and Methods of Observation Programme	WMO
IMWM	Institute of Meteorology and Water Management	Poland
INM	Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (Spain)	Spain
INPE	National Institute for Space Research (Brazil)	Brazil
INSAT	Indian geostationary multi-function SATellite	India
IOC	Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission	UNESCO
IOCCG	International Ocean Colour Coordination Group	CEOS
IP	Internet Protocol	Telecommunication protocol
IPD	International Polar Decade
IPWG	International Precipitation Working Group	CGMS
IPY	International Polar Year
IRAS	Infrared Atmospheric Sounder	Instrument on FY-3 series (China)
IRMSS	Infrared Multi-Spectral Scanner	Instrument on CBERS-2
IRS	Indian Remote Sensing Satellite	ISRO, India
ISCCP	International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project	GEWEX, WCRP
ISES	International Space Environment Service	Space Weather
ISRO	Indian Space Research Organization	India
ISWI	International Space Weather Initiative
ITCZ	Inter Tropical Convergence Zone
ITSC	International TOVS Study Conference	ITWG, CGMS
ITWG	International (A)-TOVS Working Group	CGMS
IWWG	International Wind Working Group	CGMS
JASON	Ocean surface topography mission	NASA, CNES, NOAA, EUMETSAT
JAXA	Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency	Japan
JCSDA	Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation	USA
JMA	Japan Meteorological Agency	Japan
JCOMM	Joint Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology	WMO, UNESCO/IOC
JPL	Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)	NASA
JPSS	Joint Polar Satellite System	NOAA
KARI	Korea Aerospace Research Institute	Korea
KMA	Korea Meteorological Administration	Korea
KNMI	Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute	National meteorological service of the Netherlands
LAC	Local Area Coverage	NOAA/POES
LAI	Leaf Area Index	Vegetation parameter
LBR	Low Bit Rate
LEO	Low Earth Orbit
Lidar	LIght Detection And Ranging
LIS	Lightning Imaging Sensor	TRMM, NASA
LRIT	Low Rate Information Transmission (dissemination standard for GEO)	Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS
LRPT	Low Resolution Picture Transmission (dissemination standard for LEO)	Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS
LST	Land Surface Temperature	Level 2 product
LST	Local Solar Time (usually Mean Local Solar Time)	Sun-Synchronous orbits
McIDAS	Man-computer Interactive Data Access System	UNIDATA, UCAR
MDD	Meteorological Data Distribution	Meteosat
Megha-Tropique	A joint CNES-ISRO mission	CNES, ISRO
MERIS	Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer	Instrument on Envisat
MERSI	Medium Resolution Spectral Imager	Instrument on FY-3, China
Meteosat	Meteorological Satellite	Series of European geostationary meteorological satellites (EUMETSAT) - see MSG, MTG
METOP	METeorological OPerational (polar) satellite of EUMETSAT	EUMETSAT
MHS	Microwave Humidity Sounder	Instrument on Metop, NOAA/POES
MIRAS	Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis	SMOS, ESA
MIS	Microwave Imager Sounder	Planned instrument on NPOESS
MISR	Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer	Instrument on Terra
MODIS	MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer	Instrument on Aqua and Terra
MOPITT	Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere	Instrument on Terra
MOS	Marine Observation Satellite
MSG	Meteosat Second Generation	EUMETSAT
MSMR	Multichannel Scanning Microwave Radiometer	Oceansat-1, ISRO
MSU-SK	Multispectral Infrared Conical Scanning Radiometer	Resurs and Okean, Roscosmos
MTG	Meteosat Third Generation	EUMETSAT
MTSAT	Multi-purpose Transport Satellite	JMA, Japan
MTSAT-FO	Multi-purpose Transport Satellite Follow-On	JMA, Japan
MTVZA	Microwave Scanning Radiometer	Meteor 3M, Russian Federation
MWHS	Microwave Humidity Sounder	Instrument on FY-3 series, China
MWTS	Microwave Temperature Sounder	Instrument on FY-3 series, China
MWR	Microwave Radiometers	Instrument on Envisat
NASA	National Aeronautics and Space Administration	USA
NASDA	National Space Development Agency (Japan)	Now: JAXA
NCAR	National Center for Atmospheric Research	USA
NCEP	National Center for Environmental Prediction	NOAA, USA
NCSA	National Center for Supercomputing Applications	HDF, University of Illinois
NDVI	Normalised Differential Vegetation Index
NESDIS	National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service	NOAA, USA
NetCDF	Network Common Data Format	Format, UNIDATA, UCAR
NIR	Near InfraRed
NIST	National Institute of Standards and Technology	GSICS Member, USA
NMHS	National Meteorological and Hydrological Services
NOAA	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration	USA
NOAAPORT	DVB-S dissemination system for AWIPS products	NOAA, USA
NPOESS	National Polar Operational Environmental Satellite System	USA
NPP	NPOESS Preparatory Project	USA
NRSC	National Remote Sensing Centre	China
NRT	Near-Real Time
NSCATT	NASA wind Scatterometer	Instrument on ADEOS
NSMC	National Satellite Meteorology Centre	CMA, China
NWP	Numerical Weather Prediction
Oceansat	Ocean monitoring Satellite	ISRO, India
OCI	Ocean Colour Imager
OCM	Ocean Colour Monitor	Oceansat, ISRO
OCTS	Ocean Colour and Temperature Scanner	ADEOS, JAXA
OLR	Outgoing Long-wave radiation
OMI	Ozone Mapping Instrument	Aura
OMPS	Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite	NPOESS
OPAG-IOS	Open Programme Area Group on Integrated Observing Systems	WMO, CBS
OSEI	Operational Significant Event Imagery team	NOAA/NESDIS
OSMI	Ocean Scanning Multispectral Imager
OSSEs	Observing System Simulation Experiments
PAN	Panchromatic sensor
Planeta	"Planeta" Scientific and Research Centre on Space Hydrometeorology	Russian Federation
PM	Post Meridian	After noon
PMEL	Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory	NOAA
POES	Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite	NOAA satellite series
POLDER	Polarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectance	ADEOS
PSU	Practical Salinity Units
PUMA	Project for Preparing the Use of Meteosat second generation in Africa	EUMETSAT
QuikSCAT	Ocean surface wind measurement mission with Seawinds instrument	NASA
Radarsat	Radar satellite	CSA (Canada)
RAOBs	RADiosonde OBServations
RARS	Regional ATOVS Retransmission Services	IGDDS, EARS
RMTC	Regional Meteorological Training Centre	WMO
Roshydromet	Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring	Russian Federation
Roscosmos	Russian Federal Space Agency	Russian Federation
R&D	Research and Development
RRR	Rolling Review of Requirements	WMO
RSSC-CM	Regional/Specialized Satellite Centre on Climate Monitoring . This initiative is now renamed "SCOPE-CM"	Renamed: SCOPE-CM
SAC-C	Scientific Applications Satellite-S	CONAE (Argentina)
SAF	Satellite Applications Facility	EUMETSAT (SAF web page)
SAR	Synthetic Aperture Radar
SATAID	Satellite Animation and Interactive Diagnosis	JMA, Japan
SBUV	Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet (radiometer)	Instrument on NOAA/POES
SCIAMACHY	SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY	Instrument on Envisat
SCOPE-CM	Sustained and Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring	(former R/SSC-CM), ECV
Seasat	Sea Satellite	NASA, USA
SeaWIFS	Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor	Instrument on Orbview-2 (former SeaStar) satellite
Seawinds	Scatterometer for sea surface wind measurement	Instrument on QuikSCAT
SEVIRI	Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager	Instrument on MSG
SFCG	Space Frequency Coordination Group	www.sfcgonline.org
SIRS	Satellite Infrared Spectrometer
SMI	Soil Moisture Index
SMOS	Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite	Earth Explorer, ESA
SOG	Statement of Guidance	WMO, RRR
SSEC	Space Science Engineering Center	University of Wisconsin, Madison
SSM/I	Special Sensor Microwave/Imager	DMSP
SSS	Sea surface salinity	Level 2 product
SST	Sea Surface Temperature	Level 2 product
SWH	Significant Wave Height	Level 2 product
TDCF	Table Driven Code Form	Examples are BUFR and GRIB
TIROS	Television InfraRed Observation Satellite	NOAA former satellite series
TMI	TRMM Microwave Imager	Instrument on TRMM
TOA	Top of Atmosphere
TOMS	Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
TOPEX-Poseidon	TOPographic EXPeriment – Poseidon ocean surface topography mission	NASA - CNES
TOVS	TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder	NOAA/POES
TRMM	Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission	NASA - JAXA
UARS	Upper Atmosphere research Satellite	NASA satellite
UCAR	University Corporation for Atmospheric Research	USA, www.ucar.edu
UKMO	United Kingdom Meteorological Office	Now: "Met Office, UK "
UNCCD	United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNFCCC	United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
UNIDATA	UCAR program Center for Earth Sciences data and tools	(Unidata website) , UCAR
UN-OOSA	United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs
UTC	Universal Time Coordinated
UTH	Upper Tropospheric Humidity	Level 2 product
UTWV	Upper Tropospheric Water Vapour
UV	Ultraviolet
VIIRS	Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite	Instrument on NPP and NPOESS
VIRR	Visible and Infrared Radiometer	Instrument on FY-3 series, China
VIRS	Visible Infrared Scanner	Instrument on TRMM
VIS	Visible channel
VisitView	Software tool for distance learning	Virtual Laboratory
VISSR	Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer	Instrument on GMS, JMA, Japan
VLab	Virtual Laboratory	Training
VRL	Virtual Resources Library	Virtual Laboratory
WCRP	World Climate Research Programme	WMO, UNESCO/IOC, ICSU
WEFAX	Weather Facsimile
WFI	Wide Field Imager	Instrument on CBERS
WIGOS	WMO Integrated Global Observation Systems	WMO, system of observing sytems
WIS	WMO Information System	A WWW component
WMO	World Meteorological Organization
WMO SP	WMO Space Programme	WMO programme
WWW	World Weather Watch	WMO programme
W3C	World Wide Web Consortium	XML
XML	Extensible Markup Language	Format developed by W3C
ZAMG	Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics	Austria