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Suggested Citation:"Appendix F: Acronyms and Abbreviations." National Research Council. 2010. Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12883.
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Appendix F
Acronyms and Abbreviations

AFOLU agriculture, forestry, and other land use

AIRS Atmospheric Infrared Sounder

ALE-GAGE Atmospheric Lifetime Experiment-Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment

ASCENDS Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons

ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVIRIS Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

CFC chlorofluorocarbon

CH4 methane

CO2 carbon dioxide

COP Conference of Parties (United Nations)

CTMs chemistry-transport models

DESDynI Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice

DETER Real-Time Detection of Deforestation

DIAL differential absorption lidar

DOC degradable organic carbon

DOE Department of Energy

ECMWF IFS European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts Integrated Forecast System

EDGAR Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research

ESRL Earth System Research Laboratory

FAO UN Food and Agriculture Organization

FIA U.S. Forest Service Inventory and Analysis

GAW Global Atmosphere Watch

GDP gross domestic product

GEMS Global and Regional Earth System Monitoring Using Satellite and In situ Data

GOFC-GOLD Global Observations of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics

GOSAT Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite

Gt billion metric tons

GTOS-TCO Global Terrestrial Observing System-Terrestrial Carbon Observations

HFC hydrofluorocarbon

HiFIS High-fidelity Imaging Spectrometer

IASI Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer

Suggested Citation:"Appendix F: Acronyms and Abbreviations." National Research Council. 2010. Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12883.
×

ICESat-II Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-II

ICOS Integrated Carbon Observation System

IEA International Energy Agency

INTEX/NA Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment—North America

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPPU industrial processes and product use

kWh kilowatt-hour

LDCM Landsat Data Continuity Mission lidar light detection and ranging

LUCF land-use change and forestry

MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer

MOPITT Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere

Mt million tons

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOx nitrogen oxide

N2O nitrous oxide

NWP numerical weather prediction

O2 oxygen

OCO Orbiting Carbon Observatory

ORCA Oregon and California

OSSE Observation System Simulation Experiment

PFC perfluorocarbon

ppb parts per billion

ppm parts per million

ppt parts per trillion

REDD Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries

SAR synthetic aperture radar

SCIAMACHY Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography

SF6 sulfur hexafluoride

SMAP Soil Moisture Active-Passive

SSM/I Special Sensor Microwave Imager

SWDS solid waste disposal site

TCCON Total Carbon Column Observing Network

TES Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer

Tg million metric tons

TRACE-P Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

WMO World Meteorological Organization

WRF Weather Research and Forecast model

Suggested Citation:"Appendix F: Acronyms and Abbreviations." National Research Council. 2010. Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12883.
×
Page 109
Suggested Citation:"Appendix F: Acronyms and Abbreviations." National Research Council. 2010. Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12883.
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The world's nations are moving toward agreements that will bind us together in an effort to limit future greenhouse gas emissions. With such agreements will come the need for all nations to make accurate estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor changes over time. In this context, the present book focuses on the greenhouse gases that result from human activities, have long lifetimes in the atmosphere and thus will change global climate for decades to millennia or more, and are currently included in international agreements. The book devotes considerably more space to CO2 than to the other gases because CO2 is the largest single contributor to global climate change and is thus the focus of many mitigation efforts. Only data in the public domain were considered because public access and transparency are necessary to build trust in a climate treaty.

The book concludes that each country could estimate fossil-fuel CO2 emissions accurately enough to support monitoring of a climate treaty. However, current methods are not sufficiently accurate to check these self-reported estimates against independent data or to estimate other greenhouse gas emissions. Strategic investments would, within 5 years, improve reporting of emissions by countries and yield a useful capability for independent verification of greenhouse gas emissions reported by countries.

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