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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
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Page 107

APPENDIX A

Acronyms and Initialisms

ACSYS Arctic Climate System Study

ADEOS-II Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II

AHAP Alaska High-Altitude Aerial Photography

AIRS/AMSU Atmospheric Infrared Sounder/Andvanced Microwave Sounding Unit

AMM-2 Antarctic Mapping Mission 2 – Radarsat mapping devoted to interferometry

AMSR-E Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer E

AQUA NASA's second Earth Observing System Platform (TERRA is the first)

ARCSS Arctic System Science

ARM Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (DOE Archive)

ASF Alaska SAR Facility

ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

ATSR Along-Track Scanning Radiometer on ERS-1

AVHRR Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer

AVNIR Advance Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer

AWS Automated Weather Station


BALTEX Baltic Sea Experiment (A GEWEX continental scale experiment)

BEDMAP project collecting all ice thickness data of Antarctica

BOREAS Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
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Page 108

BSRN Baseline Surface Radiation Network


CIRES Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

CLIC Climate and Cryosphere program

CRYOSAT European mission to measure sea ice using interferometry starting in 2002


DAAC Distributed Active Archive Center

DISP Defense Intelligence Satellite Program

DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program

DOD Department of Defense


ECMWF European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts

ENSO El Nino Southern Oscillation

ENVISAT European multi-sensor satellite, follow on to the ERS satellites

EOS Earth Observing System

EOSDIS Earth Observing System Data and Information System

ERBE Earth Radiation Budget Experiment

EROS Earth Resources Observations Systems

ERS European Earth Remote Sensing Satellite

ESA European Space Agency

ESE Earth Science Enterprise (NASA)


FIRE-ACE First ISCCP Regional Experiment–Arctic Cloud Experiment

FLUXNET Global CO2 Flux Network

FY Fiscal Year


GEOSAT US Navy satellite that measures sea surface height with radar altimeter

GEWEX Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment

GISP2 Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2

GLAS Geoscience Laser Altimeter System

G1I Global Imager

GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GPCP Global Precipitation Climatology Project

GPS Global Positioning System

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

GTOPO30 Global 30 Arc-Second Elevation Data Set

GVAP Global Water Vapor Project


HARC Human Dimensions of the Arctic System

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
×

Page 109

HIRS High-Resolution Infrared Sounder


ICESAT NASA Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite

IKONOS A 1-2 m resolution commercial satellite

ILAS Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer

IMG Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IR Infrared

ISCCP International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project

ISLSCP International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project


JERS Japanese Earth Remote-Sensing Satellite

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory


LAII Land-Atmosphere-Ice-Interactions

LANDSAT A series of US satellites carrying visible, near-IR, and thermal IR imagers

LMD Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique


MAGS Mackenzie GEWEX Study

MISR Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer

MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

MSU Microwave Sounding Unit

MTPE Mission to Planet Earth (renamed Earth Science Enterprise)


NAO/AO North Atlantic Oscillation/Arctic Oscillation

NASA National Aeronautic and Space Administration

NCEP National Centers for Environmental Prediction

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NPOESS National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System

NPP NPOESS Preparatory Project

NSIDC National Snow and Ice Data Center

NSF National Science Foundation


OAII Ocean-Atmosphere-Ice-Interactions

OCTS Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner


PALE Paleoclimates of Arctic Lakes and Estuaries

PAR Photosynthetically Active Radiation

PARCA RadarSat Antarctic Mapping Project, Snow and Hydrology Group, Program for Arctic Climate Input Assessment

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
×

Page 110

PARCS Paleoenvironments of the Arctic System

PBL Planetary Boundary Layer

PO.DAAC Physical Oceanography DAAC (JPL)

POLDER Polarization and Directionality of Earth's Reflectances

POLES Polar Exchange at the Sea Surface

PI Principal Investigator

PROBA Project for On-Board Autonomy

PSU Practical Salinity Units


QSCAT NASA's Quick Scatterometer


RADARSAT Canadian Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite

RAMP RADARSAT Antarctic Mapping Project

RGPS RadarSat Geophysical Processing System


SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar

SASS Subsonic Assessment

ScaRab Scanner for Radiation Budget

SEASAT Sea Satellite

SEAWIFS Sea-Viewing Wide-Field-of-View Sensor

SHEBA Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic project

SIMS Synthesis, Integration, and Modeling Project of NSF-ARCSS

SMMR Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

SMOs Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity

SPOT Satellite por l'Observation Terre (French earth observation satellites)

SRB Surface Radiation Budget

SSH Sea Surface Height

SSM/I Special Sensor Microwave/Imager

SSS Sea Surface Salinity

SST Sea Surface Temperature


T/P NASA-ERS Topex/Poseidon Satellite

TERRA NASA's Earth Observing System first multi-sensor platform

TIROS Television Infrared Observing Satellite

TOA Top of Atmosphere

TOMS Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer

TOVS TIROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder


WCRP World Climate Research Program

WDC World Data Center

WMO World Meteorological Organization

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
×
Page 107
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
×
Page 108
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
×
Page 109
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Acronyms and Initialisms." National Research Council. 2001. Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science: A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10083.
×
Page 110
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The high latitudes of the Arctic and Antarctic, together with some mountainous areas with glaciers and long-lasting snow, are sometimes called the cryosphere-defined as that portion of the planet where water is perennially or seasonally frozen as sea ice, snow cover, permafrost, ice sheets, and glaciers. Variations in the extent and characteristics of surface ice and snow in the high latitudes are of fundamental importance to global climate because of the amount of the sun's radiation that is reflected from these often white surfaces. Thus, the cryosphere is an important frontier for scientists seeking to understand past climate events, current weather, and climate variability. Obtaining the data necessary for such research requires the capability to observe and measure a variety of characteristics and processes exhibited by major ice sheets and large-scale patterns of snow and sea ice extent, and much of these data are gathered using satellites.

As part of its efforts to better support the researchers studying the cryosphere and climate, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-using sophisticated satellite technology-measures a range of variables from atmospheric temperature, cloud properties, and aerosol concentration to ice sheet elevation, snow cover on land, and ocean salinity. These raw data are compiled and processed into products, or data sets, useful to scientists. These so-called "polar geophysical data sets" can then be studied and interpreted to answer questions related to atmosphere and climate, ice sheets, terrestrial systems, sea ice, ocean processes, and many other phenomena in the cryosphere. The goal of this report is to provide a brief review of the strategy, scope, and quality of existing polar geophysical data sets and help NASA find ways to make these products and future polar data sets more useful to researchers, especially those working on the global change questions that lie at the heart of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise.

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