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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
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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
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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
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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