We’ve discussed CRU and GISS gridded data, but many of the recent news stories about the “warmest winter” come from NOAA gridded data (for example here and here) , which seems to be gaining a little market share of news attention for gridded data.
I’ve started taking a look at the data. Given the intransigence of Phil Jones and CRU in refusing to disclose their station selection and methodology and the fact that NOAA is presumably subject to the U.S. Data Quality Act, there may be some advantages to trying to figure out how NOAA gets its results.
I’ve done a first pass in trying to replicate an individual gridcell and have replicated some features and not others. Maybe others will have some ideas.
The NOAA gridded data is a land-based gridded system and is an outgrowth of the GHCN data. Only 32% of the NOAA gridcells have any values. The readme says
GHCN homogeneity adjusted data was the primary source for developing the gridded fields. In grid boxes without homogeneity adjusted data, GHCN raw data was used to provide additional coverage when possible. Each month of data consists of 2592 gridded data points produced on a 5 X 5 degree basis for the entire globe (72 longitude X 36 latitude grid boxes).
Not a very detailed recipe, but it indicates that you should be able to go from GHCN data to NOAA gridded data. The GHCN v2 Adjusted version is located at http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/v2/v2.mean_adj.Z and the “raw” version is located at http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/v2/v2.mean.Z . The most recent gridded version appears to be at ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/anom/anom-grid2-1880-current.dat.gz with some earlier versions at other locations at the website. I have not been able to figure out how to download this information in R directly. I manually downloaded all three of these files, unzipped them and organized the files into R formats. I’ve attached scripts and instructions for making these three data sets.
I’ve experimented a little with benchmarking the Barabinsk, Russia gridcell, where there is only one station, and replicated some key features in a first pass, but with some surprising issues. First, here is a figure comparing the Barabinsk anomaly series to the corresponding gridcell series. The series start and end at the same spots and have a very similar visual appearance. (Given that Barabinsk data extends to the present, as I’ve noted elsewhere, it’s unclear why GHCN hasn’t updated its Barabinsk data.)
Figure 1. Top – NOAA gridcell; bottom – GHCN anomaly (my calculation from monthly data)
While the appearance is very similar, there are some important differences between the gridcell version and the anomaly (As I calculated it). The red line is simply a smoothed version. There are two quite different replication problems – there’s something in the annual normalization that I’ve not replicated and this leads to a more pronounced annual cycle in the anomaly as I’ve emulated so far. The red line shows a smoothed version of the difference, which evens out the annual cycle. This shows a type of step difference between the GHCNv2 adjusted data and the gridcell, which seems inconsistent with the methodology description. It also shows a progressive increase of the gridded version relative to the GHCNv2 adjusted anomaly (as I’ve been able to emulated the calculation).
Figure 2. Difference between NOAA gridcell and emulated anomaly from GHCN Adjusted version
I was a little puzzled by this and so I tried the same calculation with the GHCN Raw version. Again I couldn’t quite match the annual cycle – probably something to do with the calculation of normals – but this eliminated many of the steps observed with the GHCN Adjusted version. So it looks like the NOAA gridded calculation has used the Barabinsk raw version here rather than the adjusted version (seemingly contrary to the readme). Right now I have no idea what causes the remaining differences with the gridded version.
Figure 3. Difference between NOAA gridcell and emulated anomaly from GHCN Raw version
To close the circuit, here is the difference between the GHCN raw and adjusted versions, showing differences of up to 1 degree C.
Figure 4. Difference between GHCN Adjusted and Raw versions.
A script is here.
Climate Audit 
37 Comments
To wit, I hereby present the motto of a certain educational institution, through which have passed myself, Michael Mann, and numerous others: “Let there be light!”
http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/gage-repeatability/overview/overview.html
Funny how the “adjusted” difference graphs look like hockey sticks.
RE figures 2 & 4: Am I missing something? I’d expect the adjusted to be larger than the raw data. As drawn the adjusted would show a cooling.
Here’s a comparison (annual anomaly) of raw and adjusted GHCN v2 for Tarko-Sale. Why does the adjustment lower values in the 1930s and early 40s – I thought that this was supposed to be adjusting for urban heat islands and such, but this adjustment is doing the opposite. This is getting very tiresome.
Slightly off-topic, is it possible for any regular reader of this site to publish on this site a post containing a glossary of the main, frequently-used abbreviations for the benefit of us non-scientific readers. I know this is mainly a site where-in ‘expert speaks unto expert’ and I have no wish to slow you all down by making you spell things out but, please, give us non-experts a break! I would ask our host to compose a brief glossary but he has much better things to do, however, I’m sure he would allow some one else to post one on his behalf.
Steve,
See my new post, “The Great Olenek Mistake”
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/
which has relevance to USSR data quality.
Three graphics show a huge mid 1960’s inhomogeneity.
I also note my page of several years ago on North Siberia data.
Hi – what David said, please. Steve, I am gladly hitting the tip jar – if you would be so kind as to ask someone in the know to compose that for your sidebar, it would be appreciated. I went over a week thinking that GCM was “Global Climate Model” because… well, because I thought I was clever enough to guess. (Sound of muted trumpet “wa wa”) :^)
Re 5&7
You have my sympathies; I’m rather backward on such matters too.
Hence I keep another browser window open and google acronyms that give me trouble.
The benefit being that it gives me cause to visit sites of other organizations, adding to my education while staying out of the way of McIntyre et al.
(Kudos BTW)
Well, I started out to do what rhodeymark and David requested, make a list of acronyms, figuring it would be easy … I stopped at 134 entries, it’s 3:00 AM …
All the best, use as you see fit,
w.
4AR__________Fourth Annual Report (IPCC)AAO__________Antarctic Oscillation
ABD__________Age Band Decomposition (tree ring standardisation method)
ACE__________Accumulated Cyclone Energy
ACR__________Atlantic Cylclogensis Region (cyclones)
AGCM_________Atmospheric General Circulation Model
AGU__________American Geophysical Union
AGU__________American Geophysical Union
AGW__________Anthropogenic Global Warming
AO___________Arctic Oscillation
AOGCM________Atmospheric/Ocean General Circulation Model
AR4__________Fourth Annual Report (IPCC)
ATL__________Atlantic
AVHRR________Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers
BADC_________British Atmospheric Data Centre
BEST_________Bivariate ENSO Timeseries
Bin-And-Pin__Dividing data into bins, and then pinning the endpoints when averaging
BTW__________By the way …
CA___________ClimateAudit website
CAR__________Caribbean SST Index
CC___________Carbon Credit
CC___________Climate Change
CDIAC________Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
CH4__________Methane
CMIP_________Coupled Model Intercomparison Project
CO2__________Carbon Dioxide
CoP__________Climate of the Past
CPSST________Cross Product Sea Surface Temperature
CRU__________Climate Research Unit of the Hadley Centre
CRUTEM_______Land Temperature Record from CRU
CVM__________Composite plus Variance Method (for analyzing proxies)
dO18_________Change in oxygen-18 isotope
DW___________Durbin-Watson statistic
EE___________Energy and Environment (journal)
ENSO_________El Nino Southern Oscillation
ENSO_________El Nino-Southern Oscillation
EOF__________Empirical Orthogonal Factor
EPA__________Environmental Protection Agency (US)
EPAC_________Eastern Pacific
FAR__________Fourth Annual Report (IPCC)
FOI, FOIA____Freedom Of Information Act
FWIW_________For What Its Worth
GCM__________General Circulation Model
GCR__________Galactic Cosmic Ray
GHCN_________Global Historical Climate Network
GHG__________Green House Gases
GISS_________Goddard Institute for Space Studies
GOM__________Gulf of Mexico
GRL__________Geophysical Research Letters (journal)
HadCRUT______Combined land sea temperature database from the CRU
HadISST______Ice coverage and SST database from CRU
HadSST_______Sea temperature database from the CRU
Hockey Team__Mann, Bradley, Hughes, Esper, Briffa, Schmidt, Thompson, those who support the Hockeystick
HS___________Hockeystick, see MBH98
HTM__________Holocene Thermal Maximum
ICOADS_______International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set
IIRC_________If I recall correctly …
IMHO_________In my humble opinion …
INVR_________Inverse Regression (reconstruction method)
IPCC_________Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
ITCZ_________Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone
ITRDB________International Tree Ring Databank
J Clim_______Journal of Climate (journal)
Jones________Phil Jones of CRU
Ka___________Kilo annum (1,000 years)
LIA__________Little Ice Age (Maunder Minimum)
M&M__________Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick
Mannomatic___Michael Mann's mathematical method used in MBH98
MBH98________The Mann/Bradley/Hughes 1998 Hockeystick study
MCSST________Multi-Channel Sea Surface Temperature
MEI__________Multivariate ENSO Index
Mg/Ca________Magnesium/Calcium seashell proxy record
MJO__________Madden-Julian Oscillation
MOHSST6______Met Office Historical Sea Surface Temperature (UK)
MSU__________Microwave Sounding Unit (satellite instrument for temperature measurement)
MWP__________Medieval Warming Period
MXD__________Maximum Latewood Density (tree rings)
N2O__________Nitrogen Dioxide
NAO__________North Atlantic Oscillation
NAS__________National Academy of Science (US)
NASA_________National Aeronautic and Space Agency
NCDC_________National Climate Data Center
NH___________Northern Hemisphere
NIO__________North Indian Ocean
NLSST________Non-Linear SST
NMAT_________Nighttime Marine Air Temperature
NOAA_________National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAMER_______North America
NOI__________Northern Oscillation Index
NP___________North Pacific Pattern Index
NSF__________National Science Foundation (US)
NTA__________North Tropical Atlantic Index
ONI__________Oceanic Nino Index
PCA__________Principle Component Analysis, used by Mann to create the Hockeystick
PCR__________Pacific Cyclogenesis Region (cyclones)
PCs__________Principle Components
PDI__________Power Dissipation Index (cyclones)
PDO__________Pacific Decadal Oscillation
PNAS_________Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (journal)
PPT__________Powerpoint Presentation
QBO__________Quasi-Biennial Oscillation
R____________"R" computer language
RC___________RealClimate website
RCS__________Regional Curve Standardisation tree ring standardisation method
RSS__________Remote Sensing Systems, Inc.
RW___________Ring Width (tree rings)
SAR__________Second Annual Report (IPCC)
SAT__________Surface Air Temperature
SH___________Southern Hemisphere
SI___________Supplemental Information
SOI__________Southern Oscillation Index
SOI__________Supplemental Online Information
SPM__________Summary for Policymakers (IPCC)
SQA__________Software Quality Assurance
SST__________Sea Surface Temperature
TAR__________Third Annual Report (IPCC)
TLT__________Temperature Lower Troposphere
TMT__________Temperature Middle Troposphere
TNA__________Tropical North Atlantic Index
TNI__________Trans-Nino Index
TRW__________Tree Ring Width
TSA__________Tropical South Atlantic Index
TSI__________Total Solar Irradiance
Tsurf________Surface Temperature
UAH__________University of Alabama Huntsville
UCAR_________University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
UHI__________Urban Heat Island
USHCN________United States Historical Climate Network
V&V__________Validation and Verification (for computer code)
WDCP_________World Data Center for Paleoclimatology
WG1__________Working Group 1 (IPCC)
WHWP_________Western Hemisphere Warm Pool
WMO__________World Meteorological Organization
WPAC_________Western Pacific
YMMV_________Your mileage may vary ...
Much, much thanks Mr. Eschenbach – your last entry gave a laugh. Indeed, based on a few recent threads about the propriety of “withholding evidence” when our lifestyles are on trial, I suggest adding IANAL. 🙂
Cut & printed. Hopefully Steve can make it permanently accessible, as I certainly do try to get the word out about CA – and encourage others to. I’m sorry, science is wonderful, but I demand a higher standard than academic peer review for the imposition of hardship on anyone (me, thee, 3rd World).
Thanks Willis.
In SAR, TAR, 4AR, and AR4, the A is for the word assesment,
rather than annual. They are produced at about 5 or 6 year
intervals.
John / Steve,
How about making Willis’ post a page? It would be perfect….and easy to find.
We are indebted to you Mr Eschenbach!
If a page isn’t the answer, then I think you can get an add-in for some blogging software which will create a pop-up when you hover your mouse over an abbreviation. The Adam Smith Institute blog uses it I think
Steve,
Regarding: (Given that Barabinsk data extends to the present,
as I’ve noted elsewhere, it’s unclear why GHCN hasn’t
updated its Barabinsk data.)
From the 1997 Overview of the GHCN paper:
8 – Updates
Thirty-one different sources contributed temperature data to GHCN. Many
of these were acquired through second-hand contacts and some were
digitized by special projects that have now ended. Therefore, not all
GHCN stations will be able to be updated on a regular basis. Of the 31
sources, we are able to perform regular monthly updates with only three
of them ( Figure 5 ). These are (1) the USHCN, 1221 high-quality,
long-term, mostly rural stations in the United States; (2) a 371 station
subset of the U.S. First Order station network (mostly airport stations
in the U.S. and U.S. territories such as the Marshall and Caroline
Islands in the western Pacific); and (3) 1,502 Monthly Climatic Data for
the World (MCDW) stations (subset of those stations around the world that
report CLIMAT monthly code over the Global Telecommunications System
(GTS) and/or mail reports to NCDC). Other stations will be updated or
added to GHCN when additional data become available, but this will be on
a highly irregular basis.
No Barabinsk update has been done after the 1991 data. “Highly irregular” indeed.
Re #9 Great list, willis. I hope Steve M sets it up as a reference on the sidebar.
Several other candidates:
THC thermohaline circulation
Sv Sverdrup flow rate (= 1 million cubic meters per second)
NATL North Atlantic
SIO Southern Indian Ocean
IO Indian Ocean
SPAC South Pacific
ECMWF European Community Midrange Weather Forecast Model
GFS Global Forecast System model
WP Warm Pool
mb millibar
FWIW: years and numbers of stations/locations: the number immediately
following each year is the number of stations/locations for which the
indicated year was the most recent year for which GHCN V2 contains monthly
mean temperature data.
1904 1 1927 3 1947 5 1968 33 1988 76
1906 3 1928 1 1948 6 1969 42 1989 371
1907 5 1929 5 1949 1 1970 224 1990 1086
1908 2 1930 10 1950 33 1971 36 1991 178
1909 3 1931 5 1951 8 1972 24 1992 455
1910 3 1932 1 1953 3 1973 22 1993 75
1911 1 1933 4 1954 8 1974 34 1994 31
1912 1 1934 3 1955 13 1975 137 1995 27
1913 2 1935 4 1956 11 1976 29 1996 26
1914 1 1936 5 1957 10 1977 28 1997 27
1915 1 1937 2 1958 15 1978 50 1998 22
1916 1 1938 6 1959 13 1979 32 1999 22
1918 3 1939 5 1960 89 1980 335 2000 25
1919 2 1940 3 1961 19 1981 191 2001 43
1920 5 1941 3 1962 10 1982 32 2002 35
1921 4 1942 3 1963 17 1983 87 2003 51
1922 1 1943 5 1964 23 1984 71 2004 212
1923 1 1944 7 1965 18 1985 49 2005 72
1925 4 1945 7 1966 26 1986 51 2006 1356
1926 6 1946 4 1967 46 1987 42 2007 934
Revised list, IANAL and other acronyms added, “Annual” changed to “Assessment” (it was late), duplicates removed, thanks to all who contributed … good morning.
w.
4AR__________Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)AAO__________Antarctic Oscillation
ABD__________Age Band Decomposition (tree ring standardisation method)
ACE__________Accumulated Cyclone Energy
ACR__________Atlantic Cylclogensis Region (cyclones)
AGCM_________Atmospheric General Circulation Model
AGU__________American Geophysical Union
AGW__________Anthropogenic Global Warming
AO___________Arctic Oscillation
AOGCM________Atmospheric/Ocean General Circulation Model
AR4__________Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)
ATL__________Atlantic
AVHRR________Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers
BADC_________British Atmospheric Data Centre
BEST_________Bivariate ENSO Timeseries
Bin-And-Pin__Dividing data into bins, and then pinning the endpoints when averaging
BTW__________By the way …
CA___________ClimateAudit website
CAR__________Caribbean SST Index
CC___________Carbon Credit
CC___________Climate Change
CDIAC________Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
CH4__________Methane
CMIP_________Coupled Model Intercomparison Project
CO2__________Carbon Dioxide
CoP__________Climate of the Past
CPSST________Cross Product Sea Surface Temperature
CRU__________Climate Research Unit of the Hadley Centre
CRUTEM_______Land Temperature Record from CRU
CVM__________Composite plus Variance Method (for analyzing proxies)
dO18_________Change in oxygen-18 isotope
DW___________Durbin-Watson statistic
ECMWF________European Community Midrange Weather Forecast Model
EE___________Energy and Environment (journal)
ENSO_________El Nino Southern Oscillation
EOF__________Empirical Orthogonal Factor
EPA__________Environmental Protection Agency (US)
EPAC_________Eastern Pacific
FAR__________Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)
FOI, FOIA____Freedom Of Information Act
FWIW_________For What Its Worth
GCM__________General Circulation Model
GCR__________Galactic Cosmic Ray
GFS__________Global Forecast System model
GHCN_________Global Historical Climate Network
GHG__________Green House Gases
GISS_________Goddard Institute for Space Studies
GOM__________Gulf of Mexico
GRL__________Geophysical Research Letters (journal)
HadCRUT______Combined land sea temperature database from the CRU
HadISST______Ice coverage and SST database from CRU
HadSST_______Sea temperature database from the CRU
Hockey Team__Mann, Bradley, Hughes, Esper, Briffa, Schmidt, Thompson, those who support the Hockeystick
HS___________Hockeystick, see MBH98
HTM__________Holocene Thermal Maximum
IANAL________I am not a lawyer …
IANAS________I am not a statistician …
ICOADS_______International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set
IIRC_________If I recall correctly …
IMHO_________In my humble opinion …
INVR_________Inverse Regression (reconstruction method)
IO___________Indian Ocean
IPCC_________Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
ITCZ_________Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone
ITRDB________International Tree Ring Databank
J Clim_______Journal of Climate (journal)
Jones________Phil Jones of CRU
Ka___________Kilo annum (1,000 years)
LIA__________Little Ice Age (Maunder Minimum)
M&M__________Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick
Mannomatic___Michael Mann's mathematical method used in MBH98
mb___________millibar
MBH98________The Mann/Bradley/Hughes 1998 Hockeystick study
MCSST________Multi-Channel Sea Surface Temperature
MEI__________Multivariate ENSO Index
Mg/Ca________Magnesium/Calcium seashell proxy record
MJO__________Madden-Julian Oscillation
MOHSST6______Met Office Historical Sea Surface Temperature (UK)
MSU__________Microwave Sounding Unit (satellite instrument for temperature measurement)
MWP__________Medieval Warming Period
MXD__________Maximum Latewood Density (tree rings)
N2O__________Nitrogen Dioxide
NAO__________North Atlantic Oscillation
NAS__________National Academy of Science (US)
NASA_________National Aeronautic and Space Agency
NATL_________North Atlantic
NCDC_________National Climate Data Center
NH___________Northern Hemisphere
NIO__________North Indian Ocean
NLSST________Non-Linear SST
NMAT_________Nighttime Marine Air Temperature
NOAA_________National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAMER_______North America
NOI__________Northern Oscillation Index
NP___________North Pacific Pattern Index
NSF__________National Science Foundation (US)
NTA__________North Tropical Atlantic Index
ONI__________Oceanic Nino Index
PCA__________Principle Component Analysis, used by Mann to create the Hockeystick
PCR__________Pacific Cyclogenesis Region (cyclones)
PCs__________Principle Components
PDI__________Power Dissipation Index (cyclones)
PDO__________Pacific Decadal Oscillation
PNAS_________Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (journal)
PPT__________Powerpoint Presentation
QBO__________Quasi-Biennial Oscillation
R____________"R" computer language
RC___________RealClimate website
RCS__________Regional Curve Standardisation tree ring standardisation method
RSS__________Remote Sensing Systems, Inc.
RW___________Ring Width (tree rings)
SAR__________Second Assessment Report (IPCC)
SAT__________Surface Air Temperature
SH___________Southern Hemisphere
SI___________Supplemental Information
SIO__________Southern Indian Ocean
SOI__________Southern Oscillation Index
SOI__________Supplemental Online Information
SPAC_________South Pacific
SPM__________Summary for Policymakers (IPCC)
SQA__________Software Quality Assurance
SST__________Sea Surface Temperature
Sv___________Sverdrup (flow rate = 1 million cubic meters per second)
TAR__________Third Assessment Report (IPCC)
THC__________Thermohaline Circulation
TLT__________Temperature Lower Troposphere
TMT__________Temperature Middle Troposphere
TNA__________Tropical North Atlantic Index
TNI__________Trans-Nino Index
TRW__________Tree Ring Width
TSA__________Tropical South Atlantic Index
TSI__________Total Solar Irradiance
Tsurf________Surface Temperature
UAH__________University of Alabama Huntsville
UCAR_________University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
UHI__________Urban Heat Island
USHCN________United States Historical Climate Network
V&V__________Validation and Verification (for computer code)
WDCP_________World Data Center for Paleoclimatology
WG1__________Working Group 1 (IPCC)
WHWP_________Western Hemisphere Warm Pool
WMO__________World Meteorological Organization
WP___________Warm Pool
WPAC_________Western Pacific
Great list, Willis. I second everyone’s praise. Truly a labor of love. Here’s a small chemistry addendum
CH4________methane
CFC________chloro_fluoro_carbon, e.g., ClCF3
CO ________carbon monoxide (serious poison)
HCFC_______hydro_chloro_fluoro_carbon, e.g., HCClF2
NOx________nitric oxide (‘x’ means the number of oxygens varies: 1,2,2.5)
N2O________nitrous oxide (not nitrogen dioxide)
O2_________oxygen gas (Thermodynamics says we should all burst into flame)
O3_________ozone
SF6________sulfur hexafluoride (a very inert dense gas)
SO2________sulfur dioxide (becomes SO3 in air)
SO3________sulfur trioxide (becomes sulfuric acid in humid air)
SD_________standard deviation (=r.m.s.)
r.m.s._____root-mean-squared (sqrt[sum-of-n_(errors^2))/n])
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, no cummunity 🙂
Thanks, Pat. I’m up to 163 acronyms and counting, I can see why people might find it confusing.
w.
Thanks, Paulo, fixed.
w.
Why reinvent the wheel? AFAICT, most, if not all, acronyms can be found at http://www.acronymfinder.com/
As far as GCM is concerned, it finds (in ranked order):
General Court(s)-Martial
General Circulation Model
Global Climate Model
Great Commission Ministries
Good Conduct Medal
Galois/Counter Mode (cryptography)
Global Circulation Model
Geriatric Care Managers
Greenwich Capital Markets
Greatest Common Multiple
General Counsel Memorandum (IRS)
Greatest Common Measure
Government Contract Manager
Government Created Money
Geodesic Constant Method
Re #20 Thanks for the correction. I always think of Europe as a big happy community, and that thought tricked my typing fingers…
http://www.acronymfinder.com/
A useful site, John. Thanks. But I think a shorter list will still be useful for quick reference – your example demonstrates the potential potential inefficiencies of an exhaustive listing of all acronyms.
re: #23
I’m beginning to feel like Obi Wan Kenobi. There’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time. Actually since the spring of 1964 when I took Measure Theory in college. I wonder if the Milankovic theory could be called Orbital Wobble Kinetics (OWK)?
Re: #25
I’m only suggesting that Mr. Eschenbach expend his efforts doing what he does best and not do the listing. For those who want a selective list, such as yourself, I recommend that you or they take on the onerous task of compiling the selective list and free up Willis to do his wonderful things. Never know what might rub off on you’€”you could become the resident guru. Me? I have constructed such lists WRT to the military/industrial complex and computer fields over the past thirty years; thus, have no use for one and find the link most useful.
John B., thanks for the link to the excellent acronym site. While it is useful, I’m creating a more specialized database.
The problem is twofold. One, as pointed out by bernie, is that there are often dozens of meanings for the same acronym. A beginner will not necessarily be able to choose the right one.
A second problem is that this site commonly uses a number of specialized acronyms and expressions which are not on their list, such as TGGWS, DLW, M&M, HadCRUT, RC, Mg/Ca, SAR, EEP, MBH98, Hockey Team, JJA, NATL, Mannomatic, dO18, Sv, CVM, CRUTEM, Climax, WDCP, and the like. For example, there are no less than 198 definitions of RC on the acronym site, but none of them refers to the common usage here, which is the RealClimate web site.
In any case, here’s the latest version. Corrections and additions gladly accepted.
w.
14C, 12C_______Isotopes of Carbon4AR____________Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)
AAO____________Antarctic Oscillation
ABD____________Age Band Decomposition (tree ring standardisation method)
AC1____________Lag-one autocorrelation
ACE____________Accumulated Cyclone Energy
ACR____________Atlantic Cylclogensis Region (cyclones)
AFAICT_________As far as I can tell …
AFAIK__________As far as I know …
AGCM___________Atmospheric General Circulation Model
AGG____________Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas
AGU____________American Geophysical Union
AGW____________Anthropogenic Global Warming
AIT____________An Inconvenient Truth (TV documentary)
AMIP___________Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project
AO_____________Arctic Oscillation
AOGCM__________Atmospheric/Ocean General Circulation Model
AR4____________Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)
ARIMA__________Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average model or process
ARMA___________Auto Regressive Moving Average model or process
ATL____________Atlantic
Atm____________Atmosphere, atmospheric
AU_____________Astronomical Unit (average distance of the Earth from the Sun)
AVHRR__________Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers
BADC___________British Atmospheric Data Centre
BAU____________"Business-as-Usual", IPCC scenario
BC_____________Black Carbon (climate forcing)
BE_____________Baroclinically Enhanced (cyclones)
BEST___________Bivariate ENSO Timeseries
Bin-And-Pin____Dividing data into bins, and then pinning the endpoints when averaging
BTW____________By the way …
CA_____________ClimateAudit website
CAR____________Caribbean SST Index
CC_____________Carbon Credit
CC_____________Climate Change
CCN____________Cloud Condensation Nuclei
CDIAC__________Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
CFC____________chlorofluorocarbon, e.g., ClCF3
CH4____________Methane
CI, 95%CI______Confidence Interval, 95% Confidence Interval
Climax_________Cosmic ray detector in Climax, Colorado
CMAP___________Climate Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction study
CME____________Coronal Mass Ejection (solar phenomenon)
CMIP___________Coupled Model Intercomparison Project
CO ____________Carbon Monoxide ( Poison)
CO2____________Carbon Dioxide
CoP____________Climate of the Past
CP_____________Cloud top pressure
CPC____________National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center (US)
CPSST__________Cross Product Sea Surface Temperature
CRU____________Climate Research Unit of the Hadley Centre
CRUTEM_________Land Temperature Record from CRU
CSIRO__________Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia)
CSM____________NCAR GCM, includes CSM2 and CSM3
CT_____________Cloud top temperature
CVM____________Composite plus Variance Method (for analyzing proxies)
delta, 'ˆ‚, 'ˆ†____Net change in a value
DJF____________December, January, February (winter)
DLW____________Downwelling Long Wave radiation
DMS____________Dimethyl Sulfide, a precursor of various atmospheric sulfur compounds
dO18, 'ˆ‚O18_____Change in oxygen-18 isotope level
DOE____________Department of Energy (US)
DW_____________Durbin-Watson statistic
EBM____________Energy Balance Model
ECMWF__________European Centre for Midrange Weather Forecast Model
EE_____________Energy and Environment (journal)
EEP____________Eastern Equatorial Pacific
ENSO___________El Nino Southern Oscillation
EOF____________Empirical Orthogonal Factor
EPA____________Environmental Protection Agency (US)
EPAC___________Eastern Pacific
ERBE___________Earth Radiation Balance Experiment
FAR____________Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)
FOI, FOIA______Freedom Of Information Act
FWIW___________For What Its Worth
GCM____________General Circulation Model (sometimes said to be Global Climate Model)
GCR____________Galactic Cosmic Ray
GCR____________Galactic Cosmic Radiation
GDD____________Growing Degree Day (agriculture)
GFS____________Global Forecast System model
GGWS, TGGWS____The Great Global Warming Swindle (TV documentary)
GHCN___________Global Historical Climate Network
GHG____________Green House Gases
GISS___________Goddard Institute for Space Studies, also their temperature datase
GISSE__________One of the GISS GCMs, which include E, F20, F23, M20, etc.
GLRIP__________Global Lake and River Ice Phenology database
GOM____________Gulf of Mexico
GPCP___________Global Precipitation Climatology Project
GPP____________Global Primary Production, total uptake of carbon by plant leaves
GPS____________Global Positioning System
GRL____________Geophysical Research Letters (journal)
Gt_____________Giga-tonne, 10^9 tonnes
GW_____________Global Warming
Gw_____________Giga-watt (10^9 watts)
GWD____________Gravity Wave Drag
HadCRUT________Combined land sea temperature database from the CRU
HadISST________Ice coverage and SST database from CRU
HadSST_________Sea temperature database from the CRU
HALOE__________Halogen Occultation Experiment
HCFC___________Hydrochlorofluorocarbon, E.G., Hcclf2
Hockey Team____Mann, Bradley, Hughes, Esper, Briffa, Schmidt, Thompson, those who support the Hockeystick
hPa____________hecto Pascals (pressure measurement)
HS_____________Hockeystick, see MBH98
HTM____________Holocene Thermal Maximum
IANAL__________I am not a lawyer …
IANAS__________I am not a statistician …
IB_____________Inverted Barometer (sea level)
ICOADS_________International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set
IIRC___________If I recall correctly …
IMF____________Interplanetary Magnetic Field
IMHO___________In my humble opinion …
INVR___________Inverse Regression (reconstruction method)
IO_____________Indian Ocean
IPCC___________Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
IR_____________Infra-red (radiation)
ISCCP__________International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project
ITCZ___________Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone
ITRDB__________International Tree Ring Databank
J Clim_________Journal of Climate (journal)
Jason__________Radar sea level measuring satellite
JJA____________June, July, August (summer)
Jones__________Phil Jones of CRU
JPL____________Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
K/T____________Kiehl/Trenberth global energy balance model
Ka_____________Kilo annum (1,000 years)
LIA____________Little Ice Age (Maunder Minimum)
Lowess, loess__Locally Weighted Scatterplot Smoothing (mathematics)
LW_____________Longwave (infrared) "greenhouse" radiation
M&M____________Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick
MAM____________March, April, May (spring)
Mannomatic_____Michael Mann's mathematical method used in MBH98
mb_____________millibar
MBH98__________The Mann/Bradley/Hughes 1998 Hockeystick study
MCSST__________Multi-Channel Sea Surface Temperature
MEI____________Multivariate ENSO Index
MEM____________Maximum Entropy Spectral Method (mathematics)
Mg/Ca__________Magnesium/Calcium seashell proxy record
MJO____________Madden-Julian Oscillation
MLO____________Mauna Loa, CO2 measuring station
MM_____________Maunder Minimum
MODIS__________Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (satellite instrument)
MOHSST6________Met Office Historical Sea Surface Temperature (UK)
MSL____________Mean Sea Level
MSU____________Microwave Sounding Unit (satellite instrument for temperature measurement)
MWP____________Medieval Warming Period
MXD____________Maximum Latewood Density (tree rings)
N2O____________Nitrous Oxide
NAO____________North Atlantic Oscillation
NAS____________National Academy of Science (US)
NASA___________National Aeronautic and Space Agency
NATL___________North Atlantic
NCDC___________National Climate Data Center
NCEP___________National Centers for Environmental Prediction (US)
NGO____________Non-Governmental Organization
NH_____________Northern Hemisphere
NIO____________North Indian Ocean
NIR____________Near Infra-red (radiation)
NLSST__________Non-Linear SST
NMAT___________Nighttime Marine Air Temperature
NOAA___________National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAMER_________North America
NOI____________Northern Oscillation Index
NOx____________Nitric Oxide ('X' means the number of oxygens varies: 1,2,2.5)
NP_____________North Pacific Pattern Index
NSF____________National Science Foundation (US)
NSIDC__________National Snow and Ice Data Center
NTA____________North Tropical Atlantic Index
NVAP___________NASA Water Vapor Project
O2_____________Oxygen Gas
O3_____________Ozone
OC_____________Organic Carbon
OM_____________Organic Matter (diesel pollution component)
ONI____________Oceanic Nino Index
PBL____________Planetary Boundary Layer
PCA____________Principle Component Analysis, used by Mann to create the Hockeystick
PCR____________Pacific Cyclogenesis Region (cyclones)
PCs____________Principle Components
PDI____________Power Dissipation Index (cyclones)
PDO____________Pacific Decadal Oscillation
Pg_____________Peta-gram, 10^15 grams, 1 Pg = 1 Gt
PGR____________Post Glacial Rebound of continents previously covered by ice (sea level)
PNAS___________Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (journal)
PPT____________Powerpoint Presentation
PSMSL__________Permanent Service for the Mean Sea Level
QBO____________Quasi-Biennial Oscillation
R______________"R" computer language
r.m.s._________Root-Mean-Squared (Sqrt[Sum-Of-N (Errors^2))/N])
R^2, r squared_Predictive power of a model, varies between zero and one
RC_____________RealClimate website
RCS____________Regional Curve Standardisation tree ring standardisation method
RLR____________Revised Local Reference (sea level)
RSS____________Remote Sensing Systems, Inc.
RW_____________Ring Width (tree rings)
SAR____________Second Assessment Report (IPCC)
SAT____________Surface Air Temperature
SD_____________Standard Deviation
SEM____________Standard Error of the Mean
SF6____________Sulfur Hexafluoride (a very inert dense gas)
SH_____________Southern Hemisphere
SI_____________Supplemental Information
sigma, σ_______Standard Error
SIO____________Southern Indian Ocean
SLP____________Sea Level Pressure
SO2____________Sulfur Dioxide (becomes SO3 in air)
SO3____________Sulfur Trioxide (becomes Sulfuric Acid in humid air)
SOI____________Southern Oscillation Index
SOI____________Supplemental Online Information
SON____________September, October, November (Autumn)
SPAC___________South Pacific
SPM____________Summary for Policymakers (IPCC)
SQA____________Software Quality Assurance
SS_____________Sea Salt (climate forcing)
SSA____________Singular Spectrum Analysis (mathematics)
SST____________Sea Surface Temperature
Sv_____________Sverdrup (flow rate = 1 million cubic meters per second)
SW_____________Shortwave (solar) radiation
TAR____________Third Assessment Report (IPCC)
Tg_____________Tera-gram, 10^12 grams
TGGWS, GGWS____The Great Global Warming Swindle (TV4 (UK) documentary)
THC____________Thermohaline Circulation
TIROS__________Television Infrared Observation Satellite
TLT____________Temperature Lower Troposphere
TMT____________Temperature Middle Troposphere
TNA____________Tropical North Atlantic Index
TNI____________Trans-Nino Index
TOA____________Top Of Atmosphere
TOMS___________Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (satellite instrument)
TOPEX__________Radar sea level measuring satellite
TOVS___________Operational Vertical Sounder (satellite instrument)
TRW____________Tree Ring Width
TSA____________Tropical South Atlantic Index
TSI____________Total Solar Irradiance
Tsurf__________Surface Temperature
Tw_____________Tera-watt (10^12 watts)
TWTW___________The Week That Was, Dr. Fred Singer's newsletter
UAH____________University of Alabama Huntsville
UCAR___________University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
UHI____________Urban Heat Island
USHCN__________United States Historical Climate Network
UTH____________Upper Tropospheric Humidity
UV_____________Ultra-violet (radiation)
V&V____________Verification and Validation (for computer code)
W______________watt
W/m2, W m-2____Watts/meter squared, a measure of radiation
WDCG___________World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases
WDCP___________World Data Center for Paleoclimatology
WEP____________Western Equatorial Pacific
WG1____________Working Group 1 (IPCC)
WHWP___________Western Hemisphere Warm Pool
WMO____________World Meteorological Organization
WP_____________Warm Pool
WPAC___________Western Pacific
Re #4:
Steve,
Does GHCN get much of its data from CRU? Take a look at the corrections for the CRUTEM3 dataset: “The most common reason for a station needing adjustment is a site move in the 1940-60 period. The earlier site tends to have been warmer than the later one ‘€” as the move is often to an out of town airport. So the adjustments are mainly negative, because the earlier record (in the town/city) needs to be reduced [Jones et al., 1985, Jones et al., 1986].” (page 6)
Regarding the UHI adjustment: “a 1σ value of 0.0055C/decade, starting in 1900. Recent research suggests that this value is reasonable, or possibly a little conservative [Parker, 2004, Peterson, 2004, Peterson & Owen, 2005]. The same value is used over the whole land surface, and it is one-sided: recent temperatures may be too high due to urbanisation, but they will not be too low.” (page 11)
And of overall interest: “For some stations both the adjusted and unadjusted time-series are archived at CRU and so the adjustments that have been made are known [Jones et al., 1985, Jones et al., 1986, Vincent & Gullet, 1999], but for most stations only a single series is archived, so any adjustments that might have been made (e.g. by National Met. services or individual scientists) are unknown.” (page 6)
Click to access HadCRUT3_accepted.pdf
Peter
(Howdy dedmod.)
I have been away but am now returned to find my modest suggestion more than adequately fulfilled. Thanks everyone, especially Willis who should now consider himself covered in kisses! If that is likely to cause some discomfort, then lay back and think of England (or America, or where-ever), but anyway, accept my very grateful thanks.
I’ve copied the acronyms provided by Willis to a new page, so we don’t lose track of them. It’s listed in the Pages box on the left hand column of this blog as “Common Acronyms used on this blog”
Willis,
An unbelievable effort! And thanks to John A for posting the list
on the sidebar!
Jerry
I suspect the new page title would catch eyes more readily
if the first word was abbreviations, or abbreviations/acronyms,
rather than the word commonly.
Such as:
Abbreviations/acronyms commonly used on this blog
YMMV
CRU____________Climate Research Unit of the Hadley Centre
I think this one needs correcting. CRU and Hadley Centre are two different entities. The CRU is the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia – which is just on the outskirts of Norwich, Norfolk. The Hadley Centre is the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research and is part of the Met Office and is based in Exeter, Devon.
re 33:
FUA Frequenly Used Acronyms
Re: New acronym list
Thanks very much, guys. Very helpful.
Cheers — Pete Tillman
Re 29 Peter, the short answer to your question, “Does GHCN get much of its data from CRU?”, is no.
From its inception in the early 1990’s GHCN sourced their data from National Met. orgs or collections by various researchers. Surely the whole point of GHCN was for NOAA to do an alternative to Jones et al 1986 with their own methodology. All that said, I assume that if NOAA had asked CRU for anything, it would have been given, such as this 19C ex Russian Imperial data from Sitka AK ref to in a later thread.
Re 34, I agree Rod.