Expanded abbreviations and acronyms
General
- AIREP
- Aircraft meteorological reports
- ALPEX
- Alpine Experiment
- BADC
- British Atmospheric Data Centre
- BoM
- Australian Bureau of Meteorology
- COADS
- Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set
- COLA
- Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies
- ECMWF
- European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
- ERA
- ECMWF Re-Analysis
- FGGE
- First GARP Global Experiment
- GARP
- Global Atmospheric Research Program
- GMS
- Geostationary Meteorological Satellite
- JMA
- Japan Meteorological Agency
- NCAR
- National Center for Atmospheric Research
- NOAA
- National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration
- RAL
- Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
- SMMR
- Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer
- SSM/I
- Special Sensor Microwave/Imager
- TEMP
- Radiosonde/rawindsonde observations
- T106
- Spectral truncation at wavenumber 106 (in gridpoint format usually 320 data points (in longitude) by 160 data points (in latitude) over the globe)
- TIROS
- Television and Infra-red Observation satellite
- TOVS
- TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder
- UGAMP
- UK Universities Global Atmospheric Modelling Programme
- 1D-VAR
- One-dimensional variation retrieval
- WMO
- World Meteorological Organisation
Diagnostic and period types
- DD
- Data type
- ec
- monthly mean (for a given month and year)
- fc
- Forecast surface fields, derived from time-accumulated data
- im
- Isentropic level fields
- it
- Isentropic level transient fields
- mc
- monthly climatology (ie. a long-period average for 1979-93)
- ph
- Non-forecast surface fields
- pm
- Pressure level fields
- PP
- Period type
- pt
- Pressure level transient fields
- sf
- Computed surface fields
- sc
- seasonal climatology (ie. a long-period average for 1979-93)
- sm
- seasonal mean (the mean of three consecutive months)
- tp
- Tropopause fields
Meteorological variables and units
- H
- Diabatic heating
- M
- Montgomery function
- PV
- Potential vorticity
- pvu
- Potential vorticity units (10**-6 SI units)
- q
- Specific humidity
- T
- Temperature
- tau-x
- Zonal surface wind stress component
- tau-y
- Meridional surface wind stress component
- u
- Eastward wind component
- v
- Northward wind component
- w
- Omega vertical velocity component
- WSC
- Wind stress curl
- z
- Geopotential height
Software
- DRS
- Data Retrieval and Storage
- GETCLIM
- Software for retrieving UGAMP-ERA data from tape at RAL
- UMAP
- UGAMP Model Analysis Program
- VCS
- Visualization and Computation System
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Last updated 10 November 1997. This page is maintained by Roger Brugge,
brugge@met.rdg.ac.uk