NCEP/Climate Prediction Center ATLAS No. 2

Intercomparison of the NCEP/NCAR and the NASA/DAO Reanalyses (1985-1993)


List of Acronyms

AVHRR: Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

BUFR: Binary Universal Format Representation

CAC: Climate Analysis Center (currently 'Climate Prediction Center')

CDAS: Climate Data Assimilation System

CDC: Climate Diagnostics Center

CDROM: Compact Disc - Read Only Memory

COADS: Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set

CPC: Climate Prediction Center (formerly 'Climate Analysis Center')

CQC: Complex Quality Control

DAO: Data Assimilation Office

ECMWF: European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts

ENSO: El Nino-Southern Oscillation

ERL: Environmental Research Laboratories

FGGE: First GARP Global Experiment (1979)

FTP: File Transfer Protocol

GARP: Global Atmospheric Research Program

GATE: GARP Atmospheric Tropical Experiment

GDAS: Global Data Assimilation System

GFDL: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

GISST: Global Ice and Sea Surface Temperature data set

GLA: Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres

GrADS: Grid Analysis and Display System

GRIB: GRidded Binary format

GTS: Global Telecommunications System

HIRS: High Resolution Infrared Sounder

IR: Infrared

ITCZ: InterTropical Convergence Zone

JMA: Japan Meteorological Agency

MSU: Microwave Sounding Unit

NCAR: National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCDC: National Climate Data Center

NCEP: National Centers for Environmental Modeling (formerly NMC)

NESDIS: National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service

NH: Northern Hemisphere

NMC: National Meteorological Center (now NCEP)

NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

OA: Optimal Averaging

OGP: Office of Global Programs

OI: Optimal Interpolation

OLR: Outgoing Long-wave Radiation

OIQC: OI-based Quality Control

QBO: Quasi-biennial Oscillation

QC: Quality Control

SiB: Simple Biosphere Model

SH: Southern Hemisphere

SIRS: Satellite Infrared Spectrometer

SSI: Spectral Statistical Interpolation (also known as a 3-D VAR scheme)

SSM/I: Special Sounding Microwave/Imager

SMMR: Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

SST: Sea Surface Temperature

SSU: Stratospheric Sounding Unit

T62: Triangular 62 waves truncation

TB: Tera byte (1015 bytes)

TOVS: TIROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder

TWERLE: Tropospheric Wind Earth Radio Location Experiment

UKMO: United Kingdom Meteorological Office

USAF: United States Air Force

VTPR: Vertical Temperature and Pressure Radiometer

WMO: World Meteorological Organization

XBT: Bathythermograph


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