EOSDIS Acronym and Symbol List

Acronym and symbol list for NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Acronym/Symbol Definition More Information
3ROX Three Rivers Optical Exchange  
3S Small Satellite System, Suite de Systeme SPOT, SPOT Successor System  
A Back to top  
AAC ABoVE Airborne Campaign
Associate Analysis Center
 
AAOE Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment  
aaS as a Service  
AATSR Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer  
ABBA Arctic Boreal Burned Area  
ABI Advanced Baseline Imager  
ABoVE Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment  
ABRACOS Anglo-Brazilian Amazonian Climate Observation Study  
AC Analysis Center  
ACC IGS Analysis Center Coordinator  
ACCESS Advancing Collaborative Connections for Earth System Science program  
ACEP ABoVE Concise Experiment Plan  
ACEPOL Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and LIDAR  
ACES Anthropogenic Carbon Emissions System  
ACL Access Control List  
ACR Active Cavity Radiometer  
ACRIM Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor  
ACRIMSAT Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite  
ACRS/TLAS Automated Conflict Resolution System/TDRSS Look Angle System  
ACSI American Customer Satisfaction Index *commonly referred to as ACSI
ACT-America Atmospheric Carbon and Transport–America  
ACTIVATE Aerosol Cloud Meteorology Interactions over the Western Atlantic Experiment  
ACTS Advanced Communication Technology Satellite  
ADC Affiliated Data Center  
ADCP Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler  
ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing Satellite  
ADM Atmospherics Dynamics Mission  
ADMG Airborne Data Management Group  
ADN ASTER Data Network  
ADRG ARC-Digitized Raster Graphics  
ADS40 Airborne Digital Sensor 40  
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line  
ADURD Archiving, Distribution and User Services Requirements Document  
AEB Agencia Espacial Brasileira  
AEM-2 Application Explorer Mission-2  
AERI Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer  
AERONET Aerosol Robotic Network  
AES Atmospheric Environmental Service  
AESICS ASTER Emergency Scheduling Interface and Control System  
AFGL Air Force Geophysics Laboratory  
AfriSAR Africa SAR  
AGAGE Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment  
AGB Aboveground Biomass  
AGI Advanced Global Imager  
AGS Alaska Ground Station  
AGU American Geophysical Union *commonly referred to as AGU
AHAP Alaska High-Altitude aerial Photography  
AIAA American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics  
AICC Alaskan Interagency Coordination Center  
AIMs Africover Interpretation and Mapping System  
AIMS Airborne Integrated Mapping System  
AIR Airborne Imaging Radar  
AIRGrav Airborne Gravity  
AirMISR Airborne Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer  
AirMOSS Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface  
AirMSPI Airborne Multi-angle Spectro Polarimetric Imager  
AIRS Atmospheric Infrared Sounder  
AIRSAR Aircraft Synthetic Aperture Radar  
AirSWOT Airborne Surface Water and Ocean Topography  
AIUB Astronomical Institute of Berne (Switzerland)  
ALEXIS Array of Low Energy X-Ray Imaging Sensors  
ALI Advanced Land Imager  
ALO Astronomical Latitude Observatory (Poland)  
ALOS Advanced Land Observation Satellite  
ALS Aerial (Airborne) Laser Scanning  
ALTM Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper  
ALTMS Airborne LIDAR Topographic Mapping System  
AM Automated Mapping  
AM/FM Automated Mapping/Facilities Management  
AMAPS Aerosol Measurement and Processing System  
AMI Active Microwave Imager
Amazon Machine Image
 
AMI SAR Active Microwave Imager Synthetic Aperture Radar  
AMPR Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer  
AMPS Automatic Mapping and Planning System  
AMR Altimetry Microwave Radiometer  
AMR-C Advanced Microwave Radiometer-C  
AMRIR Advanced Medium Resolution Imaging Radiometer  
AMS American Meteorological Society  
AMSAT Amateur Satellite  
AMSD Adjusted Mapping Support Data  
AMSR Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer  
AMSR-CU Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Control Unit  
AMSR-E Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS  
AMSR-SU Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Sensor Unit  
AMSU Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit  
AMSU-A1 AMSU-A1 Module - Receives V and W Band Frequencies on Channels 3-15  
AMSU-A2 AMSU-A2 Module - Receives K and Ka Band Frequencies on Channels 1 & 2  
AMSU-B Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-B (Earlier MHS, Became HSB)  
AMTS Advanced Moisture and Temperature Sounder  
ANGe Archive Next Generation  
ANOVA Analysis of Variance  
AO Announcement of Opportunity  
AOIPS Atmospheric and Oceanographic Image Processing System  
AOL Airborne Oceanographic LIDAR  
AOLP Angle Of Linear Polarization  
AOPP Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics  
AOS ASTER Operation Segment  
AOSP Advanced On-Board Signal Processor  
APAN Asia Pacific Area Network  
APAR Absorbed Photosynthetic Active Radiation  
APCM Aerial Photography Contract Management System  
API Application programming interface  
APID Application Process Identifier  
APOLLO Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation  
AppEEARS Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples  
APR-3 Airborne Precipitation Radar 3rd Generation  
APSG Asia-Pacific Space Geodynamics Program  
APT Automatic Picture Transmission  
APU Autonomous Parsivel Unit  
AQT Association Québecoise de Télédétection  
AQUA Automated Data Query and Access *as opposed to the Aqua satellite
ARA Atmospheric Radiation Analysis  
ARB 48" LIDAR Aerosol Reserach Branch  
ARC Analysis and Review of CMR  
ARC Ames Research Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
ARCO Augmented Representation of Cultural Objects  
ARELAS Arequipa, Peru Laser Station  
ARESE ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) Enhanced Shortwave Experiment  
ARGOS Argos Data Collection and Position Location System  
ARIES Astronomical Radio Interferometric Earth  
ARIN American Registry of Internet Names  
ARISE Arctic Radiation - IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment  
ARISTOTELES Applications and Research Involving Space Technologies Observing The Earths' field from Low Earth orbiting Satellite  
ARMSAT Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Satellite  
ARN Amazon Resource Name  
ARSET Applied Remote Sensing Training  
ARVI Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index  
AS Access Subgroup (Part of CEOS-WGISS)  
ASAR Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar  
ASAS Advanced Solid-State Array Spectrometer  
ASC Agence Spatiale Canadienne  
ASCA Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics  
ASCAT Advanced Scatterometer  
ASCENDS Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days and Seasons  
ASCIE American Standard Code for Information Exchange  
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange  
ASDC Atmospheric Science Data Center  
ASF Alaska Satellite Facility  
ASF DAAC Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center  
ASFUWG ASF User Working Group  
ASI Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Italian Space Agency)  
ASIM Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor  
ASIRAS Airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR)/Interferometric Radar Altimeter System  
ASIS Aggregation of Services for Ice Sheets  
ASL Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory  
ASM Acquisition Strategy Meeting  
ASO Airborne Snow Observatory  
ASP Alaska SAR Processor  
ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer  
ASTGTM ASTER Global DEM  
ATBD Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document  
ATDRSS Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System  
ATES Alcatel Espace Systems  
ATLAS Advanced Thermal and Land Applications Sensor  
ATLID Atmospheric LIDAR  
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode  
ATMOS Atmospheric Observations Satellite (Trace Molecules Observed by Spectroscopy)  
ATMS Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder  
ATom Atmospheric Tomography mission  
ATOST Atlantic - THORpex Observing System Test  
ATR1 Automatic Target Recognition Module (Leica)  
ATS Advanced Technology Satellite  
ATSR Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ESA ERS)  
ATTREX Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment  
AUSLAS Graz Laser Station (Austria)  
AUSLIG Australian Surveying and Land Information Group  
AVAPS Advanced Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System  
AVHRR Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer  
AVHRR GAC AVHRR Global Coverage Area  
AVHRR LAC AVHRR Local Area Coverage  
AVIRIS Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer  
AVIRIS-CL AVIRIS Classic  
AVIRIS-NG AVIRIS-Next Generation  
AVIS Airborne Vegetation Index Sensor  
AVNIR Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer  
AVOCET Atmospheric Vertical Observations of CO2 in the Earth's Troposphere  
AWARE
A tool for monitoring and forecasting Available Water Resource in mountain environment
 
AWG Analysis Working Group (ILRS)  
AWiFS Advanced Wide Field Sensor  
AWOTS Automated Wallops Orbital Tracking Station  
AXCTD Airborne eXpendable Conductivity Temperature Depth  
B Back to top  
BARD Bay Area Regional Deformation (USA)  
bbFTS BaBar File Transfer Protocol  
BDRF Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function  
BE-C Beacon Explorer C  
BEDI Big Earth Data Initiative  
BFL Bundesamt fur Landestopographie (Switzerland)  
BGP Boundary Gateway Protocol  
BIGS Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics  
BIH Bureau International de l’Heure  
BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures  
BKG Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (Germany)  
BNSC British National Space Centre (UK)  
BOREAS Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study  
BRDF Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function  
BSDSS Border Spatial Decision Support System  
BUFR Binary Universal Form for the Representation of meteorological data  
BWC Bandwidth Compression  
BWE Bandwidth Expansion  
C Back to top  
C-MARE Central Mediterranean Aerosol and Radiation Experiment  
C-SPAD Compensated Single Photoelectron Avalanche Detector  
C-STAR Conically Scanning Two-Look Airborne Radiometer  
C5/6 Collection 5/6 MODIS data  
CaaS Cloud as a Service  
CADU Channel Access Data Units  
CAFS CCD Actinic Flux Spectroradiometers  
CAL WG Calibration Working Group  
CAL/VAL Calibration/Validation  
Cal/Val Calibration/Validatation  
CALIOP Cloud-Aerosol LIDAR and with Orthogonal Polarization  
CALIPSO Cloud-Aerosol LIDAR and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation  
CalREN California Research and Education Network  
CALS Cloud and Aerosol LIDAR System  
CAMBOT Continuous Airborne Mapping By Optical Translator  
CAMEL Combined ASTER and MODIS Emissivity database over Land  
CAMEX Convection and Moisture Experiment  
CAMP2EX Cloud, Aerosol and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment  
CanSISE Canadian Sea Ice and Snow Evolution  
CAP Combined Active Passive  
CARVE Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment  
CASEI Catalog of Archived Suborbital Earth science Investigations  
CATS Cloud-Aerosol Transport System  
CB Central Bureau  
CBA Consolidated Billing Account  
CBC Cypher Block Chaining  
CBERS China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite Program  
CBIS Central Bureau Information System  
CCAN Coupled Carbon and Nitrogen  
CCB Configuration Control Board  
CCD Charged-Coupled Device  
CCMODS Collaborative Climate Model and Observational Data Services  
CCRS Canada Centre for Remote Sensing  
CCSDS Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems  
CD/CI Continuous Development/Continuous Integration  
CDAS Command and Data Acquisition Station  
CDB Command Data Block  
CDDIS Crustal Dynamics Data Information System  
CDF Common Data Format  
CDI Climate Data Initiative  
CDIAC Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (DOE/ORNL)  
CDK Cloud Development Kit  
CDKTF Terraform Cloud Development Kit  
CDM Continuous Diganosis and Mitigation  
CDMS Cryospheric Data Management System (NSIDC)  
CDN

Content Delivery Network

 
CDOM

Colored Dissolved Organic Matter

 
CDR Critical Design Reviews  
CDRC CIESIN Data and Research Center  
CEE Centro de Estudios Espaciales (Chile)  
CEES Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Research  
CEMSCS Central Environmental Monitoring Satellite Computer System (NOAA)  
CEMSDS Central Environmental Satellite Data System  
CEO European Centre for Earth Observation  
CEOS Committee on Earth Observation Satellites  
CEOSWGD/CS CEOS Working Group on Data, Catalog Subgroup  
CERES Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System  
CERGA Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Geodynamiques et Astronomiques (France)  
CERN Center for European Laboratory for Particle Physics (Switzerland)  
CERR Critical Events Readiness Review  
CESA Conical Earth Sensor Assembly  
CESBIO Centre d’ Études Spatiales de la Biosphère (France)  
CESDIS Center for Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences  
CESM1-LE

Community Earth System Model 1 - Large Ensemble

 
CESM2 Community Earth System Model 2  
CfA Center for Astrophysics (USA)  
CFC Chlorofluorocarbon  
CFI Claes Fornell International  
CGF Cloud-Gap Filled  
CGS Centro di Geodesia Spaziale (Italy)  
CHAMP Challenging Mini-Satellite Payload  
CICD Continuous Integration and Continuous Development  
CICESE Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Education Superior de Ensenada  
CIDR Classless Inter-Domain Routing  
CIESIN Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network  
CIGNET Cooperative International GPS Network  
CIMS Cleaning Industry Management Standard  
CIMSS Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (Mexico)  
CINTEX CEOS Catalogue Interoperability Experiment  
CIO Conventional International Origin  
CIPE Central Institute for Physics of the Earth (Germany)  
CIR Color Infrared  
CIRPAS Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies  
CIRS Composition Infrared Spectrometer  
CIS Cryogenic Interferometer Spectrometer
Commonwealth of Independent States
 
CIT-CIMS Caltech Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer  
CIWG Catalog Interoperability Working Group  
CL Command Language  
CLAES Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer  
CLAMS Cheasapeake Lighthouse and Aircraft Measurements for Satellites  
CLASIC Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign  
CLC CORINE Land Cover  
CLCW Command Link Control Word  
CLG Central Laboratory for Geodesy (Bulgaria)  
CLIMCAPS Community Long-term Infrared Microwave Coupled Product System  
CLS Collecte, Localisation, Satellites (France)  
CLSM Catchment Land Surface Model  
CM Configuration Management  
CMAQ Community Multi-scale Air Quality  
CMG Climate modeling grid  
CMIS Conical Scanning Microwave Imager/Sounder  
CMO Configuration Management Office  
CMP Cloud Management Platform
Common Midpoint
 
CMR Common Metadata Repository  
CMS Carbon Monitoring System  
CNES Centre National d’Études Spatiales (France)  
CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)  
CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)  
CO Contracting Officer  
COARE Continental Ocean-Atmosphere Regional Experiment  
CODE Center for Orbit Determination in Europe  
CODMAC Committee on Data Management, Archiving, and Computing  
COG Cloud Optomized GeoTIFF  
COMMGR Communications Manager  
CONAE Comision National de Actividades Espaciales  
CONUS Conterminous United States *commonly referred to as CONUS
CORAL Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory  
CORE Continuous Observation of the Rotation of the Earth  
CORINE Coordination of Information on Environment  
CORS Continuously Operating Reference Station  
COS Constellation Operations System  
COSMIC Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate  
CoSMIR Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer  
COSMO/SkyMed Constellation of Small satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observation  
COSPAR Committee on Space Research
Congress for Space Research
 
COTR Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative  
COTS Commercial Off-The Shelf  
CPEX Convective Processes Experiment  
CPEX-AW Convective Processes Experiment - Aerosols and Winds  
CPF Consolidated Prediction Format  
CPI Cloud Particle Imager  
CPL Cloud Physics lidar  
CPP Cloud Photopolarimeter
Combination Pilot Project
 
CPR Cloud Profiling Radar  
CR Correlation Radiometer  
CReSIS Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets  
CRI Coastal Resolution Improvement  
CrIMSS Cross-track Infrared and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounders  
CrIS Cross-track Infrared Sounder  
CRISTA/SPAS Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere/ Shuttle Pallet Satellite  
CRL Communications Research Laboratory (Japan)
Compact Raman Lidar
 
CRLHI CRL, Hiraiso Solar Terrestrial Research Center (Ibaraki, Japan)  
CRP Command Relay Processor  
CRREL Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory  
CRSS Canadian Remote Sensing Society  
CRYSYS Cryospheric System  
CSA Canadian Space Agency  
CSDGM Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata  
CSESP Citizen Science for Earth Systems Program  
CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa)  
CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia)  
CSLC California Space Launch Complex  
CSMA/CD Carrier-Sense Multiple-Access With Collision Detection  
CSP Cloud Service Provider  
CSPO Compute Service Program Office  
CSR Center for Space Research (University of Texas, Austin, TX)  
CSRIFS Combined Square Root Information Filter and Smoother  
CSS Cascading Style Sheet  
CSTG International Coordination of Space Techniques for Geodesy and Geodynamics  
CSWR Center for Severe Weather Research  
CTD Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth  
CTGNSS Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System  
CTIOV1 Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (La Serena, Chile)  
CV Cube Visualization  
CVA Change Vector Analysis  
CVO Climate Virtual Observatory  
CWIC CEOS WGISS Integrated Catalog  
CYGNSS Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System  
CZCS Coastal Zone Color Scanner (Nimbus-7)  
D Back to top  
D-PAF Germany Processing and Analysis Facility  
D3R Dual-frequency Dual-polarized Doppler Radar  
DAAC Distributed Active Archive Center  
DaaS Desktop as a Service  
DADS Data Archive and Distribution System  
DAF Data Archive Facility  
DAIS-1 Digital Airborne Imagery System  
DAN Canadian Network  
DAO Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (Victoria, Canada)  
DAR Data Acquisition Request  
DAS Data Analysis Subsystem  
DASF Directional Area Scattering Function  
DAWN Doppler Aerosol WiNd  
DBaaS Database as a Service  
DC IGS Data Center  
DCaaS Datacenter as a Service  
DCN Document Change Notice  
DCOTTS Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere  
DCS Data Collection System  
DDL Direct Downlink  
DDM Digital Displacement Model  
DDMI Delay-Doppler Mapping Instrument  
DDN Defense Data Network  
DDNA Divided Difference Noise Analysis  
DEDS DAAC to EDOS Data Set  
DEL Data Evaluation Laboratory  
Delta-X

Delta Exchange

 
DEM Digital Elevation Model  
DEM-G Digital Elevation Model - Graphic (coordinates)  
DEM-P Digital Elevation Model - Planar (coordinates)  
DEMEX Alternate name for the ASTER GDEM Explorer  
DEOS Delft Institute for Earth-Oriented Space Research (Netherlands)  
DESIS DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer  
DFCD Data Format Control Document  
DFN Deutsches Forschungnetz (Germany)  
DFRD Data Format Requirements Document  
DFTNIC Data Flow Technology Network Information Center (NASA Goddard)  
DGDF Digital Geospatial Data Files  
DGFI Deutsches Geodaetisches ForschungsInstitut (Germany)  
DGPS Differential Global Positioning System  
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol  
DHF Data Handling Facility  
DIAL Differential Absorption Lidar  
DIF Directory Interchange Format  
difSAR Differential SAR  
DIGCAT Digital Catalogue  
DIGEST Digital Geographic Information Exchange Standard  
dis-ALEXI ALEXI disaggregate algorithm  
DISC Data and Information Services Center  
DISCOVER-AQ Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and VERtically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality  
DIT Development Integration and Testing  
DLG Digital Line Graph  
DLR Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Agency)  
DLS Dynamic Limb Sounder  
DMO DEM and Orthorectified  
DMR Detailed Mission Requirements  
DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program  
DMZ Demilitarized Zone  
DNB Day/Night Band  
DNS Domain Name Service  
DOI Digital Object Identifier *used as both DOI and doi
DOLP Degree Of Linear Polarization  
DOMES Directory of MERIT Sites  
DOPLID Doppler LIDAR  
DOQ Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle  
DORIS Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated By Satellite  
DOSE Dynamics of the Solid Earth  
DOSLI Department of Survey and Land Information (Wellington, New Zealand)  
DOW Doppler on Wheels  
DOY Day of year  
DPR Dual Precipitation Radar  
DPSSL Diode Pumped Solid State laser  
DR Decommissioning Review  
DRAO Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory  
DREN Defense Research and Engineering Network  
DRG Digital Raster Graphic  
DRR Disposal Readiness Review  
DRSS Data Relay Satellite System  
DSCOVR Deep Change Observation Mission  
DSIR/PEL Dept. of Scientific & Indus. Res./Physics & Engineering Lab (Lauder, New Zealand)  
DSN Deep Space Network  
DSR Downward Shortwave Radiation  
DSS Deep Space Station  
DTED Digital Terrain Elevation Data  
DTM Digital Terrain Model  
DUE DAAC Unique Extension  
DUT Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands)  
DUT/OSG Delft University of Technology/Observatory for Space Geodesy (The Netherlands)  
DWL Doppler Wind LIDAR  
DWS Doppler Wind Sensor  
E Back to top  
E-ISAT EOSDIS Internet Security Assessment Team  
E-LIDAR Experimental LIDAR  
EARLSeL European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories  
EARN European Academic Research Network  
EarthCARE Earth Clouds Aerosols and Radiation Explorer  
EAS Electrical Accommodation Subsystem (Terra AM-1)  
EASE-Grid Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid  
EBAF Energy Balanced and Filled  
EBnet EOSDIS Backbone network  
EBS EOS Broadcast Stations  
EC European Community  
EC2 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud  
ECA Earth Central Angle  
ECC Earthdata Code Collaborative  
ECCO Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean  
ECE Earthdata Collaboration Environment  
ECHO EOS Clearing House  
ECMP ECS Configuration Management Plan  
ECMWF European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasting  
ECOM EOSDIS Communications System  
ECOSTRESS ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station *capitalize first three letters of ecosystem
ECRB EOS Configuration Review Board  
ECRS ESDIS Consolidated Requirements System  
ECS EOSDIS Core System  
ECSS EOS Common Spacecraft Specification  
ECSTVP ECS Test and Verification Procedures  
ECSVDB ECS Verification Database  
ECT EOS Compatibility Test  
ED European Datum  
ED50 European Datum 1950  
EDC Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Data Center (USGS)
EuroLAS Data Center (Munich, Germany)
 
EDF ECS Development Facility  
EDG EOS Data Gateway (V0 Client – Replacement of B0SOT)  
EDGRS Earth Data Gathering and Reporting System  
EDHS ECS Data Handling System  
EDM Electronic Distance Measuring  
EDMA ESDIS Data Model Analysis  
EDOCS EOS Data Operations and Communications System  
EDOS EOS Data and Operations System  
EDP Enterprise Data Platform  
EDS Expedited Data Sets  
EDSC Earthdata Search Client  
EDU EDOS Data Unit  
EE Earth Explorer  
EECF Earthnet ERS-1 Central Facility  
EED EOSDIS Evolution and Development  
EEID EOSDIS External Interface Document  
EER External Engineering Review  
EETS EOS Electronic Transfer System  
EFS Elastic File System  
EGI ESI Gateway Interface  
EGIG Expéditions Glaciologiques Internationales au Groenland  
EGIST ESDS GIS Team  
EGNOS European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System  
EGS EOS Ground Station
European Geophysical Society
 
EGT EOSDIS Ground Terminal  
EGTS EOS Ground Test System  
EGU European Geophysical Union  
EIN ECS Identification Number  
EIONET European Environment Information and Observation Network  
EIS Earth Information System  
EIT EOSDIS Integration Team  
EITSO ESDIS Information Technology Security Official  
ELANOR Earth Limb And Nadir Operational Retrieval  
ELOKA Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic  
ELV Expendable Launch Vehicle  
EMACC EOS Multiple Applications Control Center  
EMD EOSDIS Core System Maintenance and Development  
EME ECS Maintenance Environment  
EMIS EDOS Management Information System  
EMIT Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation  
EMLS EOS Microwave Limb Sounder  
EMOC EOSDIS Mission Operations Center  
EMOS EOS Mission Operations System  
EMOWG EOS Mission Operations Working Group  
EMR Energy, Mines, and Resources (Canada)  
EMS ESDIS Metrics System  
EMSn EOS Mission Support network  
ENI Elastic Network Interface  
ENMC Enterprise Network Management Center  
ENSO El Nino Southern Oscillation  
ENVISAT Environmental Satellite  
EO Earth Observation  
EO-1 Earth Orbiter-1  
EO-ICWG Earth Observations International Coordination Working Group  
EOC EOS Operations Center  
EOCC EOS Operations and Control Center  
EOIS Earth Observation Information System  
EOP Earth Orientation Parameter
EDOS Operation Protocol
 
EOPS ERBE Operational Processing System  
EORC Earth Observation Research Center  
EOS Earth Observing System
Electro Optical Systems (Australia)
 
EOS AERO EOS Aerosol Mission  
EOS ALT EOS Altimetry Mission  
EOS AM Earth Observing System AM or morning crossing (Terra satellite)  
EOS CHEM EOS Chemistry Mission  
EOS COLOR EOS Color Mission  
EOS PM Earth Observing System PM or afternoon crossing (Aqua satellite)  
EOS-G Earth Observing System - Goddard  
EOSAT Earth Observing Satellite Company  
EOSC EOS Operations Support Capability  
EOSDIS Earth Observation System Data and Information System  
EOSFDS EOS Flight Data System  
EOSIWG EOS Investigator Working Group  
EOSP Earth Observing Scanning Polarimeter  
EOSPSO EOS Project Science Office  
EOSSALT Earth Observing Solid-State Radar Altimeter  
EOSSMS EOS Space Measurement System  
EOSSRP EOS Scientific Research Program  
EOT EDOS Operational Timeline  
EOWG ESDIS Operations Working Group  
EP Earth Probe  
EPDS EMOS Production Data Set  
EPG ECS Process Improvement Group  
EPGN EOS Polar Ground Network  
EPGS EOS Polar Ground Station  
EPGSS Earth Observing Polar Ground Station Services  
EPIC Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera  
EPOP European Polar-Orbiting Platform  
EPR EED2 Program Roadmap  
EPS EUMETSAT Polar System  
EPTOMS Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer  
EPUSP-PTR Escola Politecnica da USP-PTR  
ER-2 Earth Resources NASA research aircraft  
ERAST Experimental Research Aircraft Sensor Technology Program  
ERBE Earth Radiation Budget Experiment  
ERBS Earth Radiation Budget Satellite  
ERDAS Earth Resources Data Analysis System  
ERDET ESDIS Requirements Database Engineering Team  
ERG EOSDIS Review Group  
ERI Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo (Japan)  
EROS Earth Resources Observation System  
ERP Earth rotation parameter  
ERPS EOS Real-Time Processing System  
ERS Earth Resources Satellite  
ERS-1 Earth Remote-sensing Satellite-1  
ERSAR Earth Resources Synthetic Aperture Radar  
ERSDAC Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center  
ERTS-1 Earth Resources Technology Satellite –1  
ESA European Space Agency  
ESAC Earth Science Advisory Committee  
ESAD Earth Science and Applications Data System  
ESCO ESDIS Standards Coordination Office  
ESD

Earth Science Directorate

 
ESDC ESAC Science Data Center  
ESDD Earth Science Data Directory  
ESDIS Earth Science Data and Information System  
ESDR Earth Science Data Record  
ESDS Earth Science Data System  
ESDSWG Earth Science Data System Working Group  
ESDT Earth Science Data Type  
ESE Earth Sciences Enterprise  
ESESES Enhanced Solid Earth Science ESDR System  
ESH EDOS Service Header  
ESI EOSDIS Service Interface  
ESIC Earth Science Information Center  
ESID EOSDIS Systems Interface Document  
ESIP Earth Science Information Partners  
ESMES EOS System Management and Engineering Site  
ESMO Earth Science Mission Operations  
ESMP ECS Schedule Management Plan  
ESMR Electronically Scanning Microwave Radiometer  
ESN EOSDIS Science Network (ECS) (Replaced By Ebnet)  
ESOC EOSDIS System and Operations Concept (Document)
European Space Operations Center
 
ESOD Earth Science On-Line Directory  
ESOO ESDIS Science Operations Office  
ESPD Earth Science Projects Division  
ESQL Earth Science Query Language  
ESRIN European Space Research Institute (ESA)  
ESSAAC Earth System Science and Applications Advisory Committee  
ESSC Earth System Sciences Committee  
ESSE EDOS System Support Environment  
ESSI Earth and Space Science Informatics  
ESSn EOS Science Support network  
ESSO Earth Science Support Office  
ESSP Earth Science Systems Program  
ESST Earth Science Search Tool  
ESTB EGNOS System Test Bed  
ESTEC European Space Research and Space Technology Centre (ESA)  
ESTOL EOS Standard Text and Operation Language  
ET Event Timer  
ETM+ Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (Landsat 7)  
ETRS89 European Terrestrial Reference System 1989  
ETS Engineering Test Satellite
EOS Test System
 
ETSF EOSDIS Test System Facility  
ETTS ECS Trouble Ticketing System  
EUI Earthdata User Interface  
EULA End User License Agreement  
EUMETSAT European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites  
EUMS ESDIS User Model Scenario  
EUREF European Reference Frame  
Euro-SPAN European Space Physics Analysis Network  
EUROLAS European Laser Consortium  
EVI Enhanced Vegetation Index  
EVR ECS Verification Report  
EWS Early Warning System  
ExCEL EOSDIS Cloud Evolution  
F Back to top  
FA Formulation Agreement  
FaaS Function as a Service  
FAD Formulation Authorization Document  
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions  
FastCDP Fast Cloud Droplet Probe  
FCCSET Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology  
FCDAS Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station  
FDF Flight Dynamics Facility  
FDS Flight Dynamics System  
FE Fast Ethernet  
FEGS Fly's Eye GLM Simulator  
FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency  
FESG Forschungseinrichting Satellitengeodäsie (Research Facility for Space Geodesy, Germany)  
FEWS Famine Early Warning System  
FFI Forsvarets ForskningsInstitutt (Norwegian Defense Research Establishment)  
FGCC Federal Geodetic Control Committee  
FGDC Federal Geographic Data Committee  
FGI Finnish Geodetic Institute  
FGNP Field Generated Normal Points  
FIFE First ISLSCP Field Experiment  
FINLAS Metsahovi, Finland Laser Station  
FIRE First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) Regional Experiment  
FIREX-AQ Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments Experiment - Air Quality  
FIRMS Fire Information for Resource Management System  
FLASHFlux Fast Longwave And SHortwave Radiative Fluxes  
FLEXPART FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model  
FLINN Fiducial Laboratories for an International Natural Science Network  
FLOR Forecast-oriented Low Ocean Resolution  
FM-1 Flight Model 1 (NASA EOS MODIS)  
FOIA Freedom Of Information Act  
FORTE Fast On-Orbit Recording of Transient Events  
FORTRAN Formula Translation  
FOS Flight Operations Segment (ECS)  
FOT Flight Operations Team (ECS)  
FOV Field of View  
FPAR Fraction of photosynthetically active radiation  
FPD Flight Projects Directorate  
FR Full-Rate  
FRD Foundation for Research and Development (South Africa)  
FRGP Front Range GigaPOP  
FRR Flight Readiness Review  
FSA Federal Space Agency (Russia)  
FST Field Support Terminal  
FTLRS French Transportable Laser Ranging System  
FTP File Transfer Protocol  
FY Fiscal Year  
G Back to top  
G-LiHT Goddard's Lidar, Hyperspectral and Thermal Imager  
G3OS Global Terrestrial Observing System  
GA Geosciences Australia  
GAC Global Area Coverage (AVHRR)  
GALILEO Informal name of GNSS  
GAOUA Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine  
GAPE Great Alaska and Pacific VLBI Experiment  
GATES Geostationary Advanced Technology Environmental System  
GB gigabyte (109)
Governing Board
 
GBAD Ground Based Attitude Determination  
gbps Giga bits per second  
GBSS Geodetic base station software  
GCC Goddard Communications Control  
GCDC Global Change Data Center  
GCDIS Global Change Data and Information System  
GCLDC Global Change Landsat Data Collection  
GCMD Global Change Master Directory  
GCOM Global Change Observation Mission  
GCOM-W Global Change Observation Mission-Water  
GCPEx GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment  
GCPs Ground Control Points  
GDAL Geospatial Data Abstraction Library  
GDAO Goddard Data Assimilation Office  
GDAS NCEP 1-Degree Global Data Assimilation Model  
GDC IGS Global Data Center  
GDEM Global Digital Elevation Model  
GDEx Global Data Explorer  
GDGPS Global Differential GPS  
GDR Geophysical Data Record (JPL)  
GDS Ground Data System  
GDS IMS Ground Data System Information Management System  
GDSN Global Digital Seimograph Network  
GDT Global DIgital Topography  
GEBA Global Energy Budget Archive  
GED ASTER Global Emissivity Database  
GEDI Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation  
GEMI Global Environment Monitoring MSAVI  
GENESIS Global Environmental and Ecological Simulation of Interactive Systems  
GEO geostationary-Earth orbit - DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)  
GeoDAF Geodetical Data Archive Facility (Italy)  
GeodIS Geodetic Information System (Germany)  
GEOS Geodetic and Earth Orbiting Satellite
Goddard Earth Observing System
 
GEOSAT Naval Geodetic Satellite  
GEOSS Global Earth Observation System of Systems  
GeoTIFF Geographic Tagged Image File Format *commonly referred to as GeoTIFF
GeoVIS Geographic Vector Interpretation System (Africover)  
GERIS Geophysical Environmental Research Imaging Spectrometer  
GES Goddard Earth Sciences  
GES DISC Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center  
GESSEP Goddard Earth Space Science Education Project  
GEWEX Global Energy and Water cycle Experiment  
GFCC Global Forest Cover Change  
GFDL Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory  
GFED Global Fire Emissions Database  
GFO Geosat Follow-On  
GFO-1 Geosat Follow-On 1  
GFS Global Forecast System  
GFSAD Global Food Security-support Analysis Data  
GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum (Potsdam, Germany)  
GGAO Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (Greenbelt, MD)  
GGI GPS Geoscience Instrument  
GGN Global GPS Network  
GGOS Global Geodetic Observing System  
GGP Global Geodynamics Project (Gravity)  
GHISA Global Hyperspectral Imaging Spectroscopy of Agricultural-Crops and Vegetation  
GHMA Greek Hellenic Mapping Agency  
GHRC DAAC Global Hydrometeorology Resource Center DAAC  
GHRSST Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature  
GI Geological Institute (Russia)  
GIBS Global Imagery Browse Services  
GIG GPS IERS and Geodynamics Experiment  
GIMP Greenland Ice Mapping Project  
Giovanni Geospatial Interactive Online Visualization and Analysis Infrastructure  
GIPSY GPS-Inferred Positioning System  
GIS Geographical Information System *commonly used as GIS or gis
GISIG Geographical Information Systems International Group  
GISS Goddard Institute for Space Studies  
GITC GIBS Ingest in the Cloud  
GLA Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres  
GLAS Geoscience Laser Altimeter System  
GLAST Gamma Ray Large-Area Space Telescope  
GLCC Global Land Cover Characterization  
GLCN Global Land Cover Network  
GLCTS Global Land Cover Test Sites  
GLDAS Global Land Data Assimilation System  
GLI Global Imager (Japan, ADEOS)  
GLIDER Globally Leveraged Intergrated Data Exploration for Research  
GLIMS Global Land Ice Measurements from Space  
GLIS Global Land Information System  
GLISTIN Glacier and Ice Surface Topography Interferometer  
GLL Galileo  
GLM Geostationary Lightning Mapper  
GLOBE Global Change Observing Mission  
GLONASS Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System (Russia)  
GLOSS Global Observation Surveillance System  
GloVIS Global Visualizer  
GLRS Geodynamics Laser Ranging System  
GLRS-A Geoscience Laser Ranging System Altimeter  
GLRS-R Geoscience Laser Ranging System Ranger  
GLS Global Land Survey  
GLTN Goddard Laser Tracking Network (USA)  
GMAO Global Modeling and Assimilation Office  
GMIS Global Man-made Impervious Surface  
GML Geography Markup Language  
GMS Geostationary Meteorological Satellite  
GMSL Global Mean Sea Level  
GMST Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time  
GMT Greenwich Mean Time  
GMU George Mason University  
GN Ground Network  
GN&C Guidance, Navigation and Control  
GN&CS Guidance, Navigation, and Control Subsystem (Terra AM-1)  
GNAAC IGS Global Network Associate Analysis Center  
GNS GEOnet Names Server  
GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System  
GOCE Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer  
GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite  
GOFC Global Observations of Forest Cover (IGOS)  
GOLD Global Observation of Land Cover Dynamics  
GOME Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment  
GOMI Global Ozone Monitoring Instrument  
GOMOS Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars  
GOMR Global Ozone Monitoring Radiometer  
GOMS Geostationary Operational Meteorological Satellites  
GOPM Goddard Orbital Parameters Message  
GORF Goddard Optical Research Facility (Greenbelt, MD)  
GOS Geomagnetic Observing System  
GOZCARDS Global OZone Chemistry And Related trace gas Data records for the Stratosphere  
GP-B Gravity Probe B  
GP-MCE General Purpose Managed Cloud Environment  
GPCP Global Precipitation Climatology Project  
GPD Goddard Policy Directive (formerly called GMI)  
GPG Goddard Procedures and Guidelines  
GPI Global Precipitation Index  
GPM Global Precipitation Measurement  
GPP Gross Primary Productivity  
GPR Ground Penetrating Radar  
GPROF Goddard PRO Filing algorithm for instantaneous rain retrieval  
GPS Global Positioning System *commonly used as GPS or gps
GPSDIS Global Positioning System Data Information System (JPL)  
GPSDR Global Positioning System Demonstration Receiver  
GPSOS Global Positioning Sensor Occultation System  
GPSR Global Positioning Satellite Receiver  
GPSSS Global Positioning System Sustaining Support  
GPW Gridded Population of the World  
GRACE Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment  
GRACE-FO GRACE Follow-On  
GRASS Geographic Resource Analysis Support System  
GRC Glenn Research Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
GRDC Global Runoff Data Center  
GRE Generic Routing Encapsulation  
GREALM Global Lake/Reservoir Surface Inland Water Height Global Reservoirs and Lakes Monitoring  
GRELAS Dionysos, Greece Laser Station  
GrfN Getting Ready for NISAR  
GRGS Groupe de Recherches de Geodesie Speciale (France)  
GridFTP Grid File Transfer Protocol  
GrIMP Greenland Ice Mapping Project  
GRIP Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes experiment  
GRRATS Global River Radar Altimeter Time Series  
GRS 80 Geodetic Reference System of 1980  
GRT Ground Receipt Time  
GRUMP Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project  
GS [EOS] Ground System  
GSAC GPS Seamless Archive Center  
GSC Geological Survey of Canada  
GSD Geological Survey Division, NRCan (Canada)  
GSDI Global Spatial Data Infrastructure  
GSDM Global Spatial Data Model  
GSDS Global Spatial Data System  
GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
GSI Geographical Survey Institute (Tsukuba, Japan)  
GSIF Ground Station Interface Facility  
GSIP Ground Station Interface Processor  
GSLV Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle  
GSM Global System for Mobile Communication  
GSMaP Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation  
GSN Global Seismographic Network  
GSS Geodetic Survey Squadron  
GSTB Galileo System Test Bed  
GTDS Goddard Trajectory Determination System  
GTE Global Tropospheric Experiment  
GTOPO30 A global digital elevation model (DEM) with a horizontal grid spacing of 30 arc seconds  
GTSN Global Telemetered Seismograph Network  
GTWAY Gateway [for Version 0 interoperability]  
GUARDIAN GNSS-based Upper Atmospheric Real-time Disaster Information and Alert Network  
GUI Graphical User Interface  
GUID Globally Unique Identifier  
GURP Goddard Uncosted Reduction Project  
GUTS Global and High Accuracy Trajectory Determination System  
GV Ground Validation  
GW Gateway  
GWELD Global Web Enabled Landsat Data  
GWR Geographyically Weighted Regression  
H Back to top  
H2A/LRE Laser Ranging Experiment  
HADS Hydrometeorological Automated Data Systems  
HALOE Halogen Occultation Experiment  
HANPP Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity  
HAQAST Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team  
HAQES Hazardous Air Quality Ensemble System  
HARTRAO Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (South Africa)  
HAVAGO Horizontal and Vertical Adjustment of Geodetic Observations  
HBASE Global Human Built-up And Settlement Extent  
HCR HDF EOS Configuration Record  
HDDS Hazards Data Distribution System  
HDEV High Definition Earth Viewing  
HDF Hierarchical Data Format  
HDF-EOS Hierarchical Data Format - Earth Observing System  
HDJ Hydrographic Department of Japan  
HEG HDF-EOS to GeoTIFF Conversion Tool  
HEO High Earth Orbit  
HEPnet High Energy Physics Network  
HEW HDF-EOS WEB-based subsetter  
HGA Harmony-GDAL-Adapter  
HGML Hyper Graphics Markup Language (Graphical Alternative to HTML)  
HiCARS High Capability Radar Sounder  
HIMSS High-Resolution Microwave Spectrometer Sounder (Replaced By MIMR)  
HIRAD Hurricane Imaging Radiometer  
HIRDLS High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder  
HIRIS High-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer  
HIRRLS High-Resolution Research Limb Sounder  
HIRS High-Resolution Infrared Sounder  
HIS High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder  
HiTIDE High-level Tool for Interactive Data Extraction  
HIWRAP High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler  
HMA High Mountain Asia  
HMC Hydrogen Maser Clock  
HNL High Northern Latitudes  
HO Haystack Observatory (Haystack, MA)  
HOLLAS Haleakala Laser Station (Maui, HI)  
HOMAGE Heat and Ocean Mass from Gravity ESDR  
HOPLAS Mount Hopkins Laser Station (Mt. Hopkins, AZ)  
HOSS Harmony-OPeNDAP-SubSetter  
HPGN High-Precision Geodetic Network  
HQ DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)  
HR Heterotrophic Respiration  
HR-AMS High-Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometer  
HRAO Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory  
HRAS Harvard Radio Astronomy Station  
HRDFEP High Rate Demodulator Front End Processor  
HRG High-Resolution Geometry (SPOT)  
HRPT High-Resolution Picture Transmission (AVHRR)  
HRV Haute Résolution dans le Visible (SPOT)  
HRVIR High Resolution Visible Infrared (scanner)  
HS3 Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel  
HSB Humidity Sounder - Brazil (Derivative of AMSU-B, Replacing MHS)  
HSDS Object Store-Based Data Service for Earth System Science  
HSI Hue, Saturation, Intensity – Hyperspectral Imaging Instrument  
HSRL High Spectral Resolution Lidar  
HTC Hydrographic and Topographic Center  
HTML Hypertext Markup Language *commonly used as HTML or html
HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol *commonly used as HTTP or http
HVM Hardware Virtual Machine  
HYDE History Database of the Global Environment  
HYDICE Hyperspectral Digital Imagery Collection Experiment  
HYMAP Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging  
HYSOG Hydrologic Soil Group  
HyspIRI Hyperspectral Infrared Imager  
HYSPLIT Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory  
HyTES Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer  
I Back to top  
I&CLC2000 Image and CORINE Land Cover 2000  
I-SIPS ICESat Science Investigator-led Processing System  
IAA/RAS Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences  
IaaS

Infrastructure as a Service

 
IAC Infrastructure as Code  
IAG International Association of Geodesy  
IAM Identity and Access Management  
IAPG Institut für Astronomische und Physikalische Geodäsie (Germany)  
IASI Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer  
IAU International Astronomical Union  
IBGE Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia de Estatistica (Brazil)  
ICARTT International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation  
ICC Instrument Control Center  
ICCG Interagency Coordinating Committee for Geodynamics  
ICD Interface Control Document  
ICE POP International Collaborative Experiment for Pyeongchang Olympic and Paralympics  
ICESat Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite  
ICET International Center for Earth Tides  
ICF Instrument Control Facility (ECS)  
ICG Inter-Union Commission of Geodynamics  
ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol  
ICRF International Celestial Reference Frame  
ICRS International Celestial Reference System  
ICSU International Council of Scientific Unions  
IDA International Deployment of Accelerometers Network  
IDL Interactive Data Language  
IDS International DORIS Service  
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers  
IELV Intermediate Expendable Launch Vehicle  
IEOS International Earth Observing System  
IERS International Earth Rotation Service  
IESAS Academia Sinica, Institute of Earth Sciences (Taiwan)  
IFAG Institut für Angewandte Geodaesie (Germany)  
IFC Iowa Flood Center  
IFE Institut für Erdmessung (Germany)  
IFloodS Iowa Flood Studies  
IFOV Instantaneous Field of View  
IFREMER Instiut Francais de Recherche pour l'Exploration de la Mer  
IFSARE Inter-ferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar for Elevation  
IGAC International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Program of the IGBP  
IGAP International Global Aerosol Program  
IGARSS IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium  
IGBP International Geosphere - Biosphere Programme  
IGeS International Geoid Service  
IGEX International GLONASS Experiment  
IGGOS Integrated Global Geodetic Observing System  
IGLOS-PP International GLONASS Service -- Pilot Project  
IGMP Internet Group Multicast Protocol  
IGMP-DIS
International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme – Data and
Information System
 
IGN Institut Geographique National (France)
International Geodetic Network
 
IGOS Integrated Global Observing Strategy  
IGP IGS predicted orbit  
IGR IGS rapid orbit  
IGS ICEsat Ground System
International GNSS Service
 
IGSCB IGS Central Bureau  
IGST ICESat Ground System Test  
IKAR-N scanning microwave radiometer system  
IKAR-P nadir microwave radiometer  
ILAS Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer  
ILRS International Laser Ranging Service  
IMERG Integrated Multi-satelliE Retrievals for GPM  
IMG Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases  
IMOC ICESat Mission Operations Center  
IMPACT Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team  
IMPACTS Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms  
IMS Information Management System  
IMVP Institute of Metrology for Time and Space (Russia)  
INASAN Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences  
INPE Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Brasil)  
INS inertial navigation system  
InSAR Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar  
INSAT Indian National Satellite  
INSPIRE Infrastructure of Spatial Information in the European Community  
INTA Instituto Nacional de Technica Aeroespacial (Spain)  
Intelsat International Telecommunications Satellite  
INTEX-B Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment - Phase B  
IOC ICESat Orbit Control Software  
ION Institute of Navigation (USA)  
IONET Internet Protocol Operational Network  
IONEX Ionosphere map exchange format  
IOP Inherent Optical Property  
IOT Instrument Operations Team  
IP Internet Protocol  
IPA Inter-Project Agreement  
IPaaS Integration Platform as a Service  
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  
IPD Information Processing Division  
IPHEx Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology Experiment  
IPIE Science Research Institute for Precision Instrument Engineering (Russia)  
IPNOC Internet Protocol Network Operations Center  
IPOC International Partner Operations Center  
IPOMS International Polar Orbiting Meteorological Satellite Committee  
IPRG Institute for Petroleum Research and Geophysics (Israel)  
IR Infrared  
IR&D Independent Research and Development  
IR-RAD Infrared Radiometer  
IRAD Independent Research And Development  
IRCD Interface Requirements Control Document  
IRD Interface Requirements Document  
IRFC IGS Reference Frame Coordinator  
IRIS Indian Research Satellite  
IRS Institut für Erdmessung (Germany)  
IRTS Infrared Temperature Sounder  
IRV Inter-Range Vector  
ISAMS Improved Stratospheric And Mesospheric Sounder  
ISAS Institute of Space and Astronautical Science  
ISCCP International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project  
ISDN Integrated Systems Digital Network  
ISERV ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System  
ISF Instrument Support Facility  
ISGN Integrated Space Geodetic Network  
ISIPS ICEsat Science Investigator-Led Processing System  
ISIR Infrared Spectral Imaging Radiometer  
ISLSCP International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project  
ISO International Organization for Standardization  
ISP Internet Service Provider  
ISPRS International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing  
ISRO Indian Space Research Organisation  
ISS International Space Station  
ISSN International Standard Serial Number  
IST Instrument Support Terminal  
ISTRAC ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (India)  
ITIR Intermediate Thermal Infrared Radiometer  
ITMaaS Information Technology Management as a Service  
ITRF International Terrestrial Reference Frame  
ITRS International Terrestrial Reference Service  
ITS LIVE Inter-Mission Time Series of Land Ice Velocity and Elevation  
ITSS Raytheon Information Technology and Scientific Services (USA)  
IUGG International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics  
IVS International VLBI Service for Geodynamics and Astrometry  
IVTAN Institute for High Temperature of the Russian Academy of Sciences  
IWG Investigator Working Group  
IWGDD Interagency Working Group on Digital Data  
IWGDMGC Interagency Working Group on Data Management for Global Change  
J Back to top  
JAnet Joint Academic Network (United Kingdom)  
JAROS Japan Resources Observation System Organization  
JAVA Joint Academic Virtual Application *commonly used as JAVA or java
JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency  
JCET Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (USA)  
JEA Environmental Agency of Japan  
JEOC Japan's Earth Observation Center  
JEOS Japanese Earth Observing System  
JERS-1 Japanese Earth Remote-sensing Satellite-1  
JGM Joint Gravity Model  
JGOFS Joint Global Ocean Flux Study  
JGR Journal of Geophysical Research  
JHD Japanese Hydrographic Department  
JILA Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (USA)  
JIVE Joint Institute for VLBI for Europe  
JMA Japan Meteorological Agency  
JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory  
JPLAIRSAR JPL Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar  
JPOP Japanese Polar-Orbiting Platform  
JPS Javad Positioning Systems  
JPSS Joint Polar Satellite System  
JRC Joint Research Centre (Italy)  
JRC CEO European Commission Joint Research Centre  
JSC Johnson Space Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
JSON JavaScript Object Notation  
JSP Joint Seismic Program (USA)  
JUnet Japanese University Network  
JWT JSON Web Token  
K Back to top  
K Kelvin  
KACST King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)  
KAO Korean Astronomical Observatory  
KARI Korea Aerospace Research Institute  
KaRIn Ka-band Radar Interferometer  
KASPR Ka-band Scanning Polarimetric Radar  
KB kilobyte  
KBR K-Band Ranging System  
KDP Key Decision Point  
kHz Kilohertz  
KML Keyhole Markup Language  
KMS National Survey and Cadastre (Denmark)  
KNMI Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute  
KOMPSAT Korea Multipurpose Satellite  
KOOLAS Kootwijk, The Netherlands Laser Station  
KPGO Kokee Park Geophysical Observatory (Kauai, HI)  
KSC Kennedy Space Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
KVM Kernel-based Virtual Machine  
L Back to top  
L+T Swiss Federal Office of Topography  
L0 Level 0 (zero)  
L0R Level 0 Release  
L1 Level 1  
L1G Level 1 Geometrically Corrected  
L1R Level 1 Radiometrically Corrected  
L2 Level 2  
L2TP Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol  
L3 Level 3  
L4 Level 4  
LAADS DAAC Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System DAAC  
LAAS Local Area Augmentation System  
LAC Local Area Coverage  
LADAR Laser Detection and Ranging  
LAGEOS Laser Geodynamics Satellite  
LAI Leaf area index  
LAMP Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP
Low Altitude Mapping Photogrammetry
 
LAMPS Laser-scan Automated Map Production System  
LAN Local Area Network  
LANCE Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth Observations (EO)  
Landsat Land Remote-Sensing Satellite  
LANL Los Alamos National Lab  
LaRC Langley Research Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
LaRCNET Langley Research Center Network  
LARSE Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing in Ecology  
LASE LIDAR Atmospheric Sensing Experiment  
LASER Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation *commonly referred to as laser
LASSO Laser Synchronization from Stationary Orbit  
LaTIS Langley Research Center's TRMM Information System  
LBA Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia  
LBS Location-Based Services  
LCCS Land Cover Classification System  
LCLUC Land Cover and Land Use Change  
LCPEx Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment  
LDAP Lightweight Data (or Directory) Access Protocol  
LDC IGS Local Data Center  
LDEO Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory  
LDHF Landsat-7 Data Handling Facility  
LDOPE Land Data Operational Product Evaluation  
LDOS Landsat Data and Operations System  
LECZ Low Elevation Coastal Zone  
LEO low-Earth orbit - DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)  
LERC Lewis Research Center (Cleveland, OH)  
LERTS Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches en Teledetedion Spatiale  
LGDO Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory (Palisades, NY)  
LGS LDEO Gravimeter Suite  
LHASA Landslide Hazard Assessment  
lidar Light Detection And Ranging  
LIDQA Landsat Image Data Quality and Analysis  
LIGHTSAR Lightweight Synthetic Aperture Radar  
LIMS Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere  
LIP Lightning Instrument Package  
LIS Lightning Imaging Sensor  
LITE LIDAR-in-space Technology Experiment  
LLC Logical Link Control  
LLR Lunar Laser Ranging  
LMA Lightning Mapping Array  
LMD Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique  
LOD Length of day  
LOGSWG Landsat Operations Ground Segment Working Group  
LOS Loss Of Signal  
LP DAAC Land Processes DAAC  
LR Laser Retroreflector  
LRA Laser Retroreflector Array  
LRE Laser Retroreflector Experiment  
LRPT Low-Resolution Picture Transmission  
LRR Launch Readiness Review  
LRRL Low Rate Return Link  
LRS Landsat Recorder System  
LSPIM Land-Surface Processes and Interactions Mission  
LSR Land Surface Reflectance  
LSTE Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity  
LTA Long Term Archive  
LURE LUnar Ranging Experiment  
LUT Look Up Table  
LV Launch Vehicle  
LVIS Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor  
LW Longwave radiation  
LWIR Long-Wave Infrared (spectral region)  
LXC Linux Containers  
LZP Level Zero Processing  
LZPF Level Zero Processing Facility  
LZPS Level Zero Processing System  
LZW Lempel Ziv Welch  
M Back to top  
M202 Multi Mission Observation Operator  
M2M Machine to Machine  
MaaS Monitoring as a Service  
MACAWS Multicenter Airborne Coherent Atmospheric Wind Sensor  
MACLAS-1 McDonald Laser Station One (2.7 meter telescope) (TX)  
MACLAS-2 McDonald Laser Station Two (MLRS) (TX)  
MAGSAT Magnetic Field (Magnetometer) Satellite  
MAIA Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols  
MAIAC Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction  
ManLan Manhattan Landing (high performance exchange point in New York City)  
MAO Main Astronomical Observatory (Ukraine)  
MAP Map Accuracy Programme (Africover)  
MAPS Measurement of Atmospheric Pollution from Satellites  
MAPSAT Mapping Satellite  
MarineVERSE Marine Biodiversity and Scaling Project  
MARLi Multi-function Airborne Raman Lidar  
MAS MODIS Airborne Simulator  
MASC Microwave Atmospheric Sounder on Cubesat  
MASS Modular Aerial Sensing System  
MASTER MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator  
Matlab Matrix laboratory  
MATLAS Matera, Italy Laser Station  
MAX Mid-Atlantic Crossroads  
MB megabyte  
mb millibar  
MBaaS Mobile Backend as a Service  
MBES Multibeam Echo Sounding  
MBLA Multi-Beam Laser Altimeter  
MC3E Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment  
MCC Mission Control Center (Russia)  
MCEP Mean Celestial Ephemeris Pole  
MCIP Mission Critical IP  
MCoRDS Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder  
MCP Meteorological Communications Package
Micro Channel Plate
 
MCR Mission Concept Review  
MCST MODIS Characterization Support Team (EOS)  
MDR Mission Definition Review  
MEaSUREs Making Earth System data records for Use in Research Environments  
MEBS MODIS Emergency Backup System (EOS)  
MEDLAS Mediterranean Laser Campaign  
MEIS Multispectral Electrooptical Imaging Sensor  
MELV Medium Expendable Launch Vehicle  
MEO Middle Earth Orbit (Satellite)  
MER-TOGA Data merge to Trace Organic Gas Analyzer  
MER-WAS Data merge to Whole Air Sampler  
MERES Mineral and Energy Resources Exploration Satellite (Japan)  
MERIS Medium-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (ESA Envisat)  
MERIT Monitoring of Earth Rotation and Intercomparison of Techniques  
MERLIN MISR Enhanced Research and Lookup Interface  
MERRA Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications  
MESSR Multispectrum Electronic Self-Scanning Radiometer  
METEOSAT Geosynchronous Meteorology Satellite (ESA)  
METI Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (Formerly Known As MITI)  
MetOp Meteorological Operational Weather Satellite  
METSAT Meteorological Satellite  
MFEnet Magnetic Fusion Energy Network  
MFOV Medium Field of View  
MGRS Military Grid Reference System  
MHS Microwave Humidity Sounder (EOS)  
MHz MegaHertz  
MIAS Multispectral Image Analysis System  
MIDAS Multispectral Interactive Data Analysis System  
MIIC Multi-Instrument Inter-Calibration Framework  
MILnet Defense data network  
MIMR Multifrequency Imaging Microwave Radiometer  
MINDS Multi-Decadal Nitrogen Dioxide and Derived Products from Satellites  
MIPAS Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding  
MIR Multispectral Imaging Radiometer  
MIRAS Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis (ESA)  
MIRIAM/DOPI Mir Infrared Atmospheric Measurements/Double Pendulum Interferometer  
MISR Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (EOS)  
MITI Ministry of International Trade and Industry  
MIVIS Multispectral Infrared and Visible Imaging Spectrometer  
MLRO Matera Laser Ranging Observatory (Italy)  
MLRS McDonald Laser Ranging System  
MLS Microwave Limb Sounder  
MMIC Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit  
MMO Multi-Mission Operations  
MMR Modular Multi-Band Radiometer  
MMT Metadata Management Tool  
MO&DSD Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate (GSFC Code 500)  
MOA Memorandum Of Agreement  
MOBLAS MOBile LASer Ranging System  
MOC Mission Operations Center  
MODAPS MODIS Adaptive Processing System  
MODExtract MODIS Data Pool Extraction Tool  
MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (EOS)  
MODIS-N Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer - Nadir  
MODLAND MODIS Land Discipline Group (EOS)  
MODS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer  
MOM Mobile Optical Mount  
MOMS Modular Optoelectric Multispectral Scanner  
MOP Meteosat Operational Programme  
MOPITT Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere  
MOS Marine Observation Satellite  
MOSAiC Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate  
MOSPF Multicast Open Shortest Path First  
MOU Memorandum of Understanding  
MP-MP Multipoint-Multipoint Systems  
MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching  
MPPP Multi-Link Point-to-Point Protocol  
MPRD Modified Proportional Radial Displacement  
MPS Mission Planning System (ASF)  
mrad microradians  
MRIR Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer (Nimbus)  
MRMS Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor  
MRR Micro Rain Radar  
MrSID Multiresolution Seamless Image Database  
MRT MODIS Reprojection Tool  
MRTP Mission Readiness Test Plans  
MRTSwatch MODIS Reprojection Tool for Swath  
MRTWeb MODIS Reprojection Tool for the Web  
ms millisecond  
MSaaS Managed Software as a Service  
MSAS MTSAT Satellite-Based Augmentation Satellite  
MSAVI Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index  
MSC Multispectral Camera  
MSF Methane Source Finder  
MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
MSG Meteosat Second Generation (ESA)  
MSL Mean Sea Level  
MSMR Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer  
MSO Mount Stromlo (Canberra, NSW, Australia)  
MSP Managed Service Provider  
MSR Microwave Scanning Radiometer  
MSS mean square slope
Multi-Spectral Scanner (Landsat 1-5)
 
MSSSO Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatory (Canberra, NSW, Australia)  
MSTI Miniature Seeker Technology Integration  
MsTMIP Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project  
MSU Microwave Sounding Unit  
MSU-SK Multispectral Optical Scanner  
MTF Modulation Transfer Function  
MTLRS Modular Transportable Laser Ranging System  
MTPE Mission to Planet Earth (USA)  
MTS Meteoroid Technology Satellite (NASA)  
MTSAT Multi-functional Transport Satellite (Japan)  
MTTR Mean Time To Recover  
MTTRS Mean Time To Restore Service  
MUR Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution  
MUSSIC Multi-Satellite Ultraviolet Solar Spectral Irradiance Composite  
MV Mobile VLBI  
MVP Minimum Valuable Product  
MWG Missions Working Group (ILRS)  
N Back to top  
NAALSED North American ASTER Land Surface Emissivity Database  
NAAMES North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study  
NACL Network Access Control List  
NACP North American Carbon Program  
NAD North American Datum  
NAL National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan  
NALC North American Land Characterization  
NAM NASA Advisory Manager  
NAO National Astronomical Observatory (Tokyo, Japan)  
NAPEOS Navigation Package for Earth Observation Satellites  
NAPP National Aerial Photography Program  
NARA National Archives and Records Administration  
NARSA National Advanced Remote Sensing Applications Program  
NARSTO North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone  
NAS NASA Advisory Council
National Academy of Sciences
 
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration *commonly used as NASA
NASCOM NASA Communications Network  
NASCOP NASA Communications Operating Procedures  
NASDA National Space Development Agency (Japan)  
NASIRC NASA Automated Systems Incident Response Capabilities  
NASTRAN NASA Structural Analysis (Program)  
NATMAP NATional MAPping  
NAVSTAR Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging Global Positioning System  
NBAR Nadir BRDF Adjusted Reflectance  
NBI Network Business Intelligence  
NBIS Northern Biosphere Information System  
NBSM National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (China)  
NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research  
NCC National Cartographic Centre (Iran)  
NCDC National Climatic Data Center (NOAA)  
NCDS NASA Climate Data System  
NCEDC Northern California Earthquake Data Center (USA)  
NCEP National Center for Environmental Prediction (NOAA)  
NCEP AWC National Center for Environmental Prediction Air Weather Center  
NCF NSSDC Computer Facility  
NCGIA National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis  
NCL University of Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom)  
NCMN National Crustal Motion Network  
NCSA National Center for Supercomputer Applications  
NCSC National Computer Security Center  
NCSL National Computer Systems Laboratory  
NCST Naval Center for Space Technology (USA)  
Nd:YAG Neodymium Yttrium Aluminum Garnet  
NDACC Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change  
NDCS National Digital Cartographic Standards  
NDMC National Drought Mitigation Center  
NDPR NASA Defense Purchase Request  
NDSI Normalized Difference Snow Index  
NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index  
NED National Elevation Dataset  
NEP net ecosystem production  
NEPP NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging  
NERC National Environmental Research Centre (UK)  
NEROC North East Rotation Observatory Corporation  
NESDD NOAA Earth Science Data Directory  
NESDIS National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA)  
NET National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service  
netCDF Network Common Data Form  
NewDISS New Data and Information Systems and Services  
NEWG Networks and Engineering Working Group (ILRS)  
NEWS NOAA’s Earth Watch Service  
NEXRAD Next Generation Weather Radar  
NGAP NASA-compliant General Application Platform  
NGDC National Geophysical Data Center (NOAA); National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse  
NGDF National Geospatial Data Files  
NGIX Next Generation Internet Exchange  
NGMA National Geoscience Mapping Agency (Australia)  
NGMBD National Geologic Map Database (USGS)  
NGRS National Geodetic Reference System  
NGS National Geodetic Survey  
NGT NASA Ground Terminal  
NGVD National Geodetic Vertical Datum  
NGWIC National Ground Water Information Center  
NHAP National High Altitude Photography  
NIAC NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts  
NIC NASA Information Center  
NICMOS Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer  
NICT National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (Japan)  
NIES National Institute for Environmental Studies (Japan)  
NIMBUS NASA Meteorological Satellites (1 through 7)  
NIR Near Infrared (spectral region)  
NISAR NASA-ISRO SAR Mission  
NISE Near Real-Time SSM/I EASE-Grid Daily Global Ice Concentration and Snow Extent  
NISN NASA Integrated Services Network  
NISS NASA Institutional Support Systems  
NITRD Networking and Information Technology Research and Development  
NIX NASA Image Exchange  
NLAPS National Landsat Archive Production System (USGS)  
NLCD National Land Cover Dataset (USGS)  
NLDAS North American Land Data Assimilation System  
NLDC NASA Landsat Data Collection  
NLOS Not Line of Sight  
NLRS National Laser Ranging System (Orroral, Australia)  
NLS National Land Survey (Sweden)  
NM Nadir Mapper  
NMA Norwegian Mapping Authority  
NMAS National Map Accuracy Standards  
NMASS Nucleation Mode Aerosol Size Spectrometer  
NMC National Meteorological Center (NOAA)  
NMD NASA Master Directory
National Mapping Division (Australia)
 
NMI NASA Management Instruction  
NMOS NASA Management and Operations Support
Network and Mission Operations Support (NASA Program)
 
NMP New Millenium Program  
NMQ National Mosaic and Multi-Sensor QPE  
NNSS Navy Navigational Satellite System  
NO2 Nitrogen Dioxide  
NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  
NOAA SAA NOAA Satellite Active Archive  
NOARL Naval Oceanographic and Atmospheric Research Lab  
NOC Network Operations Center  
NODC National Oceanographic Data Center (NOAA)  
NODIS NSSDC Online Data and Information Service  
NODS NASA Ocean Data System  
NOMC Network Operations Management Center  
NOS National Ocean Survey  
NOSIE NODC Ocean Science Information Exchange  
NOSS National Oceanic Satellite System  
NOX Northern Crossroads  
NP Nadir Profiler
Normal Point
 
NPAS Network Planning and Analysis System  
NPG NASA Procedure and Guidelines  
NPL National Physical Laboratory (India)  
NPOESS National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System  
NPOL NASA S-Band Dual-Polarimetric Radar  
NPOP-1 NASA Polar Orbiting Platform (One)  
NPP net primary production
NPOESS Preparatory Project
 
NPR NASA Procedural Requirements  
NRA NASA Research Announcement  
NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory  
NRC National Research Council  
NRCan National Resources of Canada (Ottawa, Canada)  
NRDN NOAA Radar Data Network  
NREN National Research and Education Network  
NRIAG National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (Egypt)  
NRL Naval Research Laboratory  
NRMI Natural Resource Management Index  
NRPI Natural Resource Protection and Child Health Indicators  
NRSA National Remote Sensing Agency (India)  
NRSC National Remote Sensing Centre (UK)  
NRSCC National Remote Sensing Centre of China  
NRT Near Real-Time  
NRTP Near Real-Time Processor  
NRTPE Near Real-Time Processing Effort  
NRTS Near Real-Time System  
NSA Northern Study Area  
NSAP Network Services Access Point  
NSAU National Space Agency of Ukraine  
NSC Norwegian Space Centre  
NSCAT NASA Scatterometer  
NSDS NASA Software Documentation Standard  
NSF National Science Foundation  
NSG NASA Sentinel Gateway  
NSGF NERC Space Geodesy Facility (United Kingdom)  
NSIDC DAAC National Snow and Ice Data Center DAAC  
NSM Network Service Manager  
NSN NASA Science Network  
NSP Korean National Space Development Plan  
NSpC National Space Council  
NSPD National Space Policy Directive  
NSPIRES NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System  
NSR NISN Service Request  
NSRS National Spatial Reference System (NOAA)  
NSSDC National Space Science Data Center  
NSSL National Severe Storms Laboratory (NOAA)  
NSTC National Space and Technology Council  
NSTR NASA Standard Tape Recorder  
NTIS National Technical Information Service  
NTS National Topographic Series (Canada); National Topographic System (Canada); Navigation Technology Satellite  
NTTF NASA Test and Training Facility  
NUVEL Northwestern University velocity model  
NVAP NASA Water Vapor Project  
NVCS National Vegetation Classification Standard  
NWP Numerical Weather Prediction  
NWS National Weather Service (NOAA)  
NWS-HRL NWS - Hydrologic Research Laboratory  
NWS-RFC NWS - Regional Forecast Center  
NWS-RFO NWS - River Forecast Office  
O Back to top  
O3 Ozone  
OA Operations Agreement  
OASIS GIPSY-Orbit Analysis and SImulation Software  
OB.DAAC Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center  
OBPG Ocean Biology Processing Group  
OCA Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur (France)  
OCDPS Ocean Color Data Processing System  
OCM Ocean Colour Monitor  
OCO Orbiting Carbon Observatory  
OCR Optical Character Recognition; Optical Character Reader  
OCTS Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (Japan, ADEOS)  
ODB Orbit Determination Beacon  
ODC IGS Operational Data Center  
ODL Object Description Language  
ODPS Ocean Data Processing System SIPS
OMI Dutch Processing System
 
ODS One Day Schedule  
OEC Optical-Electronic Camera  
OGC Open Geospatial Consortium  
OGT Observatoire Géodésique de Tahiti (French Polynesia)  
OIIP Oceanographic In-situ data Interoperability Project  
OLG Observatory Lustbuehel Graz (Austria)  
OLI Operational Land Imager  
OLS Optical Line Scanner  
OLYMPEX Olympic Mountain Experiment  
OMAERO OMI Multi-wavelength  
OMAEUV OMI Ultraviolet  
OMB Office of Management and Budget  
OMG Oceans Melting Greenland  
OMI Ozone Monitoring Instrument  
OMIS Optical Multichannel Imaging Sensor (NPOESS)  
OMPS Ozone Mapper/Profiler Suite  
ONVS Ozone Near-real-time and Very-fast-delivery System  
OPeNDAP Open-source Project for Network Data Access Protocol  
OPERA Observation Products for End-Users for Remote Sensing Analysis  
ORACLES ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS  
ORFEO Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation  
ORNL DAAC Oak Ridge National Laboratory DAAC  
ORR Operational Readiness Review  
ORRLAS Orroral, Australia Laser Station  
ORT Optical Ranging Telescope  
OSC Orbital Sciences Corporation  
OSCAR Ocean Surface Current Analysis Real-time  
OSDPD Office of Space Data Processing and Distribution (NOAA)  
OSF Observation Schedule File  
OSGB Ordinance Survey of Great Britain  
OSMI Ocean Scanning Multispectral Imager  
OSO Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden)  
OSPF Open Shortest Path First (Routing Protocol)  
OSPO Office of Satellite and Product Operations  
OSS Open Source Software  
OSTA Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications (USA)  
OSTM Ocean Surface Topography Mission  
OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy  
OTAGO University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand)  
OUAT Olsztyn University of Agriculture and Technology (Poland)  
OVRO Owens Valley Radio Observatory  
P Back to top  
P-MP Point-MultiPoint systems  
PaaS Platform as a Service  
PACOR Packet Processor  
PALS Passive Active L- and S-band Sensor  
PALSAR Phased-Array L-band SAR (Japan)  
Pan-STARRS Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (USA)  
PANGA Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array (USA)  
PAR Photosynthetically Active Radiation  
PAS Polish Academy of Sciences  
PASSCAL Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (USA)  
PB petabyte (1015)  
PBL planetary boundary layer  
PC-TomoSAR Polarimetric Coherence Tomographic SAR  
PCA Primary Census Abstract  
PCDTM Point Cloud Digital Terrain Model  
PCGIAP Permanent Committee for GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific  
PCS Preservation Content Specification  
PDR Preliminary Design Review
Product Delivery Record
 
PDS Production Data Set  
PE&RS Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing (journal)  
PERSIANN-CCS Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks Cloud Classification System  
PFAR Post-Flight Assessment Review  
PFM Proto-Flight Model  
PGC Pacific Geoscience Center (Canada)  
PGE Product Generation Exectuable  
PGGA Permanent GPS Geodetic Array (Southern California)  
PGS Polar Ground System
Product Generation System
 
PHAIRS Public Health Application in Remote Sensing  
PHD Polar HDF-EOS Data Imaging and Subsetting  
PI Principal Investigator  
PICARD Push-broom Imager for Cloud and Aerosol Research and Development  
PIM Protocol Independent Multicast  
PIP Precipitation Imaging Package  
PL Public Law  
PLAR Post-Launch Assessment Review  
PLDS Pilot Land Data System  
PLRA Program-Level Requirements Appendix  
PLUE Population, Land Use, and Emissions  
PM/UT Polar Motion/Universal Time  
PMR Pressure-Modulated Radiometer  
PMSL Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level  
PMT Photo Multiplier Tube  
PNNL Pacific Northwest National Laboratory  
PO.DAAC Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center  
POA&Ms Plan of Action/Milestones  
POAM Polar Ozone and Aerosols Mission  
POC Point Of Contact  
POD Polarimeter Definition
Precision orbit determination
 
PODEX Polarimeter Definition Experiment  
POEM Polar-Orbit Earth Observation Mission  
POEMS Positron Electron Magnet Spectrometer  
POES Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite  
POGO Polar-Orbiting Geophysical Observatory  
POLAC Paris Observatory Lunar Analysis Center (France)  
POLARIS Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region In Summer
POLar motion Analysis by Radio Interferometry
 
POLDER Polarization and Directionality of Earth's Reflectances (CNES, ADEOS)  
POLES Polar Exchange at the Sea Surface  
PolinSAR Polarimetric Interferometric SAR  
POP Program Operating Plan  
POS Product Order Status  
POSS Precipitation Occurrence Sensor System  
PP Principal Point  
PPET Portable Pico-Second Event Timer  
PPME Pacific Plate Motion Experiment  
PPR Photopolarimeter Radiometer  
PPRS Precipitation Retrieval and Profiling Scheme  
PPS Precipitation Processing System  
PR Precipitation Radar (TRMM)  
PRAMM Planning Research Analysis Marketing and Management Firm (USA)  
PRARE Precise Range and Range-rate Equipment  
PRAREE Precise Range and Range Rate Equipment - Extended  
PREFIRE Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment  
PRIRODA Nature Instrument Model on Russian MIR Station  
PRISM Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer  
PRISMA Hyperspectral Precursor of the Application Mission  
PRPS Precipitation Retrieval and Profiling Scheme  
PRR Production Readiness Review  
PSA Product Specific Attributes  
PSAT Predicted Site Acquisition Table  
PSD Product Specification Document  
PSI Packetnet Systems Interface  
PSLA Project Service Level Agreement  
PSLR Portable Satellite Laser Ranging System (Latvia)  
PSLV Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle  
PSN Piano Spazial Nazionale (Italy)  
PT-JPL Priestly-Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory  
PTH Performance Test Host  
PTTI Precise Time and Time Interval  
PU Processing Unit  
PULKOVA/RAS Astronomical Observatory at Pulkova/Russian Academy of Sciences  
PUMP Provider User Management Program (retied; replaced by MMT)  
PV Precision Visuals  
PVC Performance Verification Center  
PVI Perpendicular Vegetation Index
Precipitation Video Imager
 
PW Precipitable water  
PWV Precipitable water vapor  
PyLOT Python cLoud Operations Tool  
pyQuARC Python library for Earth observation metadata quality assessment  
Q Back to top  
QA Quality Assurance  
QC Quality Control  
QL Quick-Look  
QLDAC Quick-Look Data Analysis Center (The Netherlands)  
QOS Quality of Service  
QUASAR Quality Assurance and Stability Reference  
QuikSCAT Quick Scatterometer  
QWIP Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector  
R Back to top  
RA Radar Altimeter  
RADAR Radio Direction And Ranging *commonly referred to as radar
RADARSAT Radar Satellite  
RADEX Radar Definition Experiment  
RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks  
RAMP Radarsat Antarctic Mapping Program  
RAMSES Retrieval Algorithm for Microwave Sounders in Earth Science  
RAR Real Aperture Radar  
RAS Russian Academy of Sciences  
RASA Russia Aviation-Space Agency  
RASCAL Raster Scanning Airborne Laser  
RBD Rate Buffered Data  
RCFC&WCD Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (USA)  
RCIP Real-Time Critical IP  
RCP Representative Concentration Pathway  
RCSSMRS Regional Center for Services in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing  
RDAAC Regional GPS Data Acquisition and Analysis Center on Northern Eurasia  
RDC IGS Regional Data Center  
REIS RapidEye Earth Imaging System  
REYNSST NCEP Reynolds Blended SST Weekly Product  
RF Radio Frequency  
RFC Request For Comment  
RGB Red-Green-Blue  
RGO Royal Greenwich Observatory (Great Britain)  
RGOLAS RGO, Herstmonceux, Great Britain Laser System  
RGS Receiving Ground Station (ASF)  
RINEX Receiver Independent Exchange (GPS data format)  
RIP Router Information Protocol  
RIS Raster Image Set
Reflector in Space
 
RISC Reduced Instruction-Set Computing  
RISDE Russian Institute of Space Device Engineering  
RITSS Raytheon Information Technology and Scientific Services (USA)  
RM Reference Monument  
RMS Requirements Management System  
RMSE Root-Mean-Square Error  
RNAAC IGS Regional Network Associate Analysis Center  
RNSS Radio Navigation Satellite Service  
RO Radio Occultation  
ROA Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (Spain)  
ROA Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (Spain)
Remotely Operated Aircraft
 
ROB Observatoire Royal de Belgium (Brussels, Belgium)  
ROM Read-Only Memory  
ROSA Radio Occultation for Sounding the Atmosphere  
ROSHYDROMET Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring  
ROSIS Reflective Optics System Imaging Spectrometer  
rpm revolutions per minute  
RQMT Requirements Document  
RRA RetroReflector Array  
RRL Radio Research Laboratories (Japan)  
RRS Reduced Redundancy Storage  
RSA Russian Space Agency Rosaviakosmos  
RSAC Remote Sensing Applications Center  
RSG Refraction Study Group (ILRS)
Remote Sensing Group (UAZ)
 
RSI RADARSAT International  
RSMAS Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences  
RSS Remote Sensing Society (UK)  
RST Remote Science Terminal  
RSU Rivers State University of Science and Technology (Nigeria)  
RT Real-Time  
RTADS Real-Time Attitude Determination System  
RTC Radiometrically Terrain-Correct  
RTCM Radio Technical Commission for Maritime (format)  
RTCP Real-Time Control Protocol  
RTCS Real-Time Command Sequence  
RTK Real Time Kinematic  
RTP Real-Time Positioning  
RTS Real-Time System  
RTSP Real-Time Streaming Protocol  
RTSS Real-Time System Simulator  
RTSW Real Time Solar Wind  
RUC Rapid Update Cycle  
RVoG Random Volume over Ground  
S Back to top  
S&R Search and Rescue  
S-GCOS Space-Based Global Change Observation System  
S-HIS Scanning High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder  
S-MODE Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment  
S-PDS Session-based Production Data Sets  
S3 Amazon Simple Storage Service  
s3fs S3 File System  
S4PM Simple, Scalable, Script-based, Science Processor for Measurements  
SA Selective Availability  
SAAO South African Astronomical Observatory  
SaaS Software as a Service  
SABGOM South Atlantic Bight and Gulf of Mexico  
SAC-C Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-C  
SAC-D Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas-D  
SAFARI Southern African Regional Science Initiative  
SAFE San Andreas Fault Experiment  
SAFIRE Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere using Far Infrared Emission  
SAGE Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment  
SALRO Saudi Arabian Laser Ranging Observatory (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)  
SAM Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement  
SAMS Stratospheric And Mesospheric Sounder  
SAO Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (PRC)
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
 
SAP Service Access Point  
SAPHIR Sounder for Probing Vertical Profiles of Humidity  
SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar  
SARSAT SAR Satellite  
SAS-C Scientific Applications Satellite - C  
SASS Seasat-A Satellite Scatterometer System  
SATC Software Assurance Technology Center  
SAVE Southern African Validation of EOS  
SAVI Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index  
SB-PDS Session-Based Production Data Sets  
SBA Search Based Application  
SBES Singlebeam Echo Sounding  
SBUV Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet  
SC Station Coordinates  
SC Station Coordinates
Sub-Commission
 
SCA Star Camera Assembly  
ScaLARS Scanning Laser Altitude and Reflectance Sensor (Germany)  
SCaMPR Self-Calibrating Multivariate Precipitation Retrieval  
SCAN Snow Climate Analysis Network  
SCANSAR Scanning Synthetic Aperture Radar  
SCANSCAT Scatterometer (Dual Pencil-Beam), Advanced Scatterometer for Studies in Meteorology and Oceanography  
SCAR-A Smoke/Sulfates, Clouds and Radiation - America  
SCAR-B Smoke/Sulfates, Clouds and Radiation - Brazil  
SCARAB Scanner for the Radiation Budget  
SCEC Southern California Earthquake Center  
SCEG School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (United Kingdom)  
SCF Science Computing Facility  
SCIAMACHY Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography  
SCIGN Southern California Integrated GPS Network  
SCP Secure Copy  
SCUBA Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus *commonly referred to as scuba
SDAC Satellite Data Analysis Center  
SDAT Spatial Data Access Tool  
SDCS SAR Data Catalog System  
SDMP Science Data Management Plan  
SDN Software-Defined Network (SD-LAN, SD-WAN)  
SDOC Science Data Operations Center  
SDPF Science Data Processing Facility  
SDPS Science Data Processing Segment (ECS)
Science Data Processing System
 
SDR System Definition Review  
SDS Science Data System  
SDSC San Diego Supercomputer Center  
SDSD Satellite Data Services Division  
SE&I System Engineering and Integration  
SE/RC System Evolution/Release C (ECS)  
SEAC4RS Southeast Asia Composition, Cloud, Climate Coupling Regional Study  
SeaDAS SeaWiFS Data Analysis System *commonly referred to as SeaDAS
SeaPAC SeaWinds Project (JPL)  
SEASAR Sea Synthetic Aperture Radar  
SEASAT Sea Satellite  
SEASTAR Spacecraft Flying SeaWiFS  
SeaWiFS Sea-Viewing Wide-Field Sensor  
SeaWinds Seawinds Scatterometer (for Flight on ADEOS II)  
SEDAC Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center  
SEE Sustaining Engineering Facility (EDOS Component)  
SEEDS Strategic Evolution of ESE Data Systems (formerly NewDISS)  
SEF Sustaining Engineering Facility (EDOS)  
SELV Small Expendable Launch Vehicle  
SEM Space Environment Monitor  
SENH Solid Earth and Natural Hazards (USA)  
SERF Service Entry Resource Format  
SESDI Semantically-Enabled Scientific Data Integration  
SESPD Space and Earth Science Programs Directorate  
SETIC Selective Time-Interval Counter  
SEVIRI Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (ESA)  
SEWP Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement  
SFE Science Formatting Equipment (Terra AM-1)  
SFSI Shortwave-Infrared Full Spectrum Imager (Canada)  
SFTP Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol  
SGAPO Space Geodesy and Altimetry Projects Office  
SGI Silicon Graphics - Iris  
SGML Standard Generalized Markup Language  
SGMS Space Geodetic Measurement Sites  
SGP Space Geodesy Project  
SGS Svalbard Ground Station (Norway)  
SHAO Shanghai Observatory (PRC)  
SHIPS Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme  
SHO Simosato Hydrographic Observatory (Japan)  
SHOLAS

Simosato, Japan Laser Station

 
SI Spatial Information  
SIASGE Sistema Italo-Argentino de Satélites protects Gestión de Emergencias  
SiB4 Simple Biosphere Model 4  
SIF Solar-Induced Fluorescence  
SIF-ESDR Solar-Induced Fluorescence Earth Science Data Record  
SIG Special Interest Group  
SIM Spectral Irradiance Monitor  
SIMBIOS Sensor Intercomparison and Merger for Biological and Interdisciplinary Oceanic Studies  
SIMIP Sea Ice Model Intercomparison Project  
SIMMS Scalable Integrated Multi-Mission Simulator  
SIN Sinusoidal  
SINEX Software Independent Exchange Format  
SIO Scripps Institution of Oceanography (San Diego, CA)  
SIP Standard Internet Protocol  
SIPS Science Investigator-led Processing System  
SIR System Integration Review  
SIR-C Shuttle Imaging Radar-C  
SIR-C/X-SAR Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band SAR  
SIRAL SAR/Interferometric Radar Altimeter  
SIRS Satellite Infrared Spectrometer  
SIS Spatial Information System  
SISS Software Implementation Support System  
SISTER Space-based Imaging Spectroscopy and Thermal pathfindER  
SIT System Integration Test  
SIVY Systems Integration and Visualization of Yellowstone  
SK Statens Kartverk (Norway)  
SKS Svalbard Kongsberg Ground Station  
SKYLER SBU X-band Phased Array Radar  
SLA Service Level Agreement  
SLAI Sunlit Leaf Area Index  
SLAR Side-Looking Airborne Radar  
SLR Satellite Laser Ranging  
SLRF 2020 Satellite Laser Ranging Format 2020  
SMAP Soil Moisture Active Passive  
SMAPVEX SMAP Validation Experiment  
SMC System Management Center  
SMD Science Mission Directorate  
SMIL Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language  
SMM Solar Maximum Mission  
SMMR Scanning Multispectral Microwave Radiometer  
SMOS Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity  
SMP SnowMicroPen  
SMS Synchronous Meteorological Satellite  
SMSR Safety and Mission Success Review  
SMTP Simple Mail Transport Protocol  
SN Space Network  
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol  
SNOTEL Snow Telemetry  
SNOW-I Search 'N Order Web Interface  
SnowEx Snow Experiment  
SNR Signal-to-Noise Ratio  
SNS Simple Notification Service  
SNSB Swedish National Space Board  
SNWG Satellite Needs Working Group  
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol
Single Operator Automation System
 
SOAR Satellite Ocean Aerosol Retrieval  
SoCAB South Coast Air Basin  
SOCC Science Operations Control Center  
SOD Site Occupation Designator  
SoilSCAPE Soil Moisture Sensing Controller and Optimal Estimator  
SOLSPEC Solar Spectrum (Space Shuttle instrument from Europe)  
SOLSTICE Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment  
SOM Space Oblique Mercator (projection); Spatial Object Manager  
SONAR Sound Navigation and Ranging  
SONET Synchronous Optical Network  
SOP Standard Operating Procedure  
SOPAC Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center  
SOR Starfire Optical Range (USA)  
SORCE Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment  
SOW Statement of Work  
SOX Southern Crossroads  
SP Signal Processing  
SP2 Single Particle Soot Photometer  
SPAD Single Photon Avalanche Diode  
SPAN Space Physics Analysis Network  
SPANS Simple Protocol for Asynchronous Transfer Mode Network Signaling  
SPDB Science Processing Database  
SPE Single Photo Electron  
SPEX Spectral Polarimeter for Planetary Explorations  
SPIE Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers  
SPIN-2 Space Information-2 Meter Data (Russian Space Agency)  
SPNLAS San Fernando, Spain Laser Station  
SPoRT Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center  
SPOT Systeme Pour l'Observation de la Terre  
SPS Science Processing System  
SPURS Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study  
SPWG Signal Processing Working Group (ILRS)  
SQS Simple Queue Service  
SRB Surface Radiation Budget  
SRI Space Research Institute (Russia)  
SRIF Square Root Information Filter  
SRL Shuttle Research Laboratory  
SROM Spectro-radiometer for Ocean Monitoring  
SRR System Requirements Review  
SRS Stanford Research Systems  
SRS/GPS Stellar Reference System/Global Positioning System  
SRTM Shuttle Radar Topology Mission  
SSA Southern Study Area  
SSALT Solid-State Altimeter  
SSB Space Studies Board  
SSBUV Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet  
SSC Stennis Space Center DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
SSE Surface Solar Energy  
SSEC Space Science and Engineering Center (University of Wisconsin)  
SSFPO Space Station Freedom Project Office  
SSH Sea Surface Height  
SSHA Sea Surface Height Anomalies  
SSI&T Science Software Integration and Test  
SSL Secure Sockets Layer
Space Science Laboratory (NASA Marshall)
 
SSM/I Special Sensor Microwave/Imager  
SSM/T Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature Sounder  
SSMIS Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder  
SSO Single Sign-On  
SSP Shared Socioeconomic Pathways  
SSS Sea Surface Salinity  
SST Sea Surface Temperature  
SSU Stratospheric Sounding Unit  
STA Science and Technology Agency  
STA3CD Subsetting Tools for Advanced Analysis of Airborne Chemistry Data  
STAC SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog  
STALAS Stationary Laser Station (Goddard Space Flight Center)  
STARE SpatioTemporal Adaptive-Resolution Encoding to Unify Diverse Earth Science Data for Integrative Analysis  
STARSHINE Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic International Networking Experiment  
STC Short-time Critical  
STDM Spacecraft Tracking and Data Network  
STDN Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network  
STGT Second TDRSS Ground Terminal  
STIKSCAT Stick Scatterometer  
STILT Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport  
STS Space Transport System  
SUCCESS SUbsonic aircraft Contrail and Clouds Effects Special Study  
SUDS Science, User and Data Services  
SUNSAT Stellenbosch UNiversity SATellite (South Africa)  
Suomi NPP Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership  
SV Station Velocities  
SW Shortwave radiation  
SWBD Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Water Body Dataset  
SWE Snow Water Equivalent  
SWEPOS Swedish Permanent GPS Network  
SWESARR Snow Water Equivalent SAR and Radiometer  
SWG Science Working Group  
SWIR Shortwave infrared (TM5 and TM7 spectral region)  
SWIRLS Stratospheric Wind Infrared Limb Sounder  
swisstopo Swiss Federal Office of Topography  
SWOT Surface Water Ocean Topography  
SXAO Shaanxi Astronomical Observatory (PRC)  
T Back to top  
T&C Telemetry and Command  
TAI International Atomic Time  
TARFOX Tropospheric Aerosol Radiative Forcing Observational Experiment  
TB terabyte (1012)  
TBD To Be Determined  
TBF Time Bias Function  
TBM Terrestrial Biosphere Model  
TCI Tropical Cyclone Intensity  
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol  
TCSP Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes  
TDOPF Time Dependent Operational Parameter Fire  
TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite  
TDRSS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System  
TDX TanDEM-X  
TEC total electron content  
TEDA Technical Data Acquisition Equipment (ADEOS)  
TEMPO Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution  
TERS Tropical Earth Resources Satellite  
TES Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer  
TEXnet Texas Network  
TFO TOPEX/Poseidon Follow-On  
TGD Thermal Infrared  
TGDDIS Trace Gas Dynamics Data Information System  
THEnet Texas Higher Education Network  
THIR Temperature-Humidity Infrared Radiometer  
THORpex THe Observing-system Research and predictability experiment  
THREDDS THematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services  
TIGER Thermal Infrared Ground Emission Radiometer  
TIGO Transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory  
TIM TRMM Microwave Imager  
TIMS Therms Infrared Multispectral Scanner  
TIN Triangular Irregular Network  
TIPS Tether Physics and Survivability Experiment  
TIR Thermal Infrared  
TIROS Television and Infrared Operational Satellite  
TIRS Thermal Infrared Sensor  
TIRV Tuned Inter-Range Vector  
TIS Topographic Information Systems  
TISF Tape Inventory Sequential Files  
TIU Time Interval Unit  
TLRS Transportable Laser Ranging System  
TLS Terrestrial Laser Scanning  
TLSCF Team Led Science Computing Facility  
TM Thematic Mapper (Landsat 5)  
TMI TRMM Microwave Instrument (Japan)  
TMPA TRMM Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis  
TMR TOPEX Microwave Radiometer  
TOA Top-of-Atmosphere  
TOAST Total Ozone Analysis using SBUV/2 and TOVS  
ToF Time of Flight  
TOGA Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere  
TOLNet Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network  
TomoSAR Tomography SAR  
TOMS Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer  
TOPEX Ocean Topography Experiment  
TOPSAR Topographic Synthetic Aperture Radar  
TOVS TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder  
TPM Trusted Platform Mobile  
TRACER Tropospheric Radiometer for Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Research  
TRACER-AQ TRacking Aerosol Convection ExpeRiment – Air Quality  
TRF Terrestrial Reference Frame  
TRMM Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission  
TROPICS Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats  
TROPOMI TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument  
TROS TRansportable Observation Station  
TRUST TDRSS Resource User Support Terminal  
TSAVI Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index  
TSDIS TRMM Science Data and Information System  
TSIS Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor  
TSK Tskuba Space Center (Japan)  
TSS TRMM Support System  
TSTOL TRMM System Test and Operations Language  
TSU TRMM Science User  
TSX TerraSAR-X  
TT&C Tracking, Telemetry and Command  
TUM Technical University of Munich (Germany)  
TURFTS TDRSS User Radio Frequency Test Set  
TVDS Transportable VLBI Data System  
TWMS Tiled Web Map Service  
TZD Tropospheric zenith delay  
U Back to top  
UAF University of Alaska-Fairbanks  
UARP Upper Atmosphere Research Program  
UARS Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite  
UAT User Acceptance Testing  
UAV Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle  
UB University of Bonn (Germany)  
UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research  
UCL University College, London  
UDP/IP User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol  
UEM Unified Endpoint Management  
UFP Université de la Polynésie Française (French Polynesia)  
UFPR University Federal de Parana (Brazil)  
UHF Ultra High Frequency  
UIUC University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  
um micrometer  
UMBC University of Maryland, Baltimore County  
UMM Unified Metadata Model  
UNAM Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico  
UNAVCO University NAVSTAR Consortium  
UNICANT University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand)  
UNOOSA United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs  
UNSA Universidad Nacional de San Augustin (Peru)  
UOSATS University of Surrey Satellite (United Kingdom)  
UPAD University of Padova (Italy)  
UPC Polytechnical University of Catalonia (Spain)  
UPF Université de la Polynésie Française (French Polynesia)  
URI Uniform Resource Identifier  
URL Uniform Resource Locator  
URS User Registration System (EOSDIS)  
UserDIS User Data Information System  
USGCRP United States Global Change Research Program  
USNO United States Naval Observatory  
USNVC United States National Vegetation Classification  
USO Ultra-Stable Oscillator  
USV Uninhabited Surface Vehicle  
UT Universal Time  
UTC Universal Time, Coordinated  
UTCF Universal Time Correlation Factor  
UTCSR University of Texas Center for Space Research  
UTDF Universal Tracking Data Format  
UTM Universal Transverse Mercator  
UTOPIA University of Texas Orbit Processor (USA)  
UV Ultraviolet  
UWG User Working Group  
UWIREMIS University of Wisconsin-Madison MODIS Infrared Emissivity  
V Back to top  
V0 Version 0  
VAS VISSR Atmospheric Sounder  
VATC Verification and Acceptance Testing Center  
VCF Vegetation Continuous Fields  
VCL Vegetation Canopy Lidar  
VD Village Directory  
VDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure  
VEDA Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis project  
VESDR Vegetation Earth System Data Record  
VGT SPOT-4 VEGETATION instrument (France)  
VHRPC Very High Resolution Panchromatic Camera  
VHRR Very High Resolution Radiometer  
VI Vegetation Index  
VID Vegetation Index Differencing  
VIIRS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite  
VIP Vegetation Index and Phenology  
VIRGO Variability of Solar Irradiance and Gravity Oscillations  
VIRR Visible and Infrared Radiometer  
VIRS Visible Infrared Scanner  
VIRSR Visible Infrared Scanning Radiometer  
VIS Visible (spectral region)  
VIS-UV Visible/Ultraviolet Spectrometer  
VIS/IR Visible/Infrared  
VISSR Visible/Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer (GOES)  
VLBA Very Long Baseline Array  
VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry  
VM Virtual Machine  
VML Vector Markup Language  
VMM Virtual Machine Monitor
VISSR Multiplexor/Modulator
 
VNIIFTRI All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Physical-Technical and Radiotechnical Measurements (Russia)  
VNIR Visible and Near-infrared (spectral region)  
VOCs Volatile Organic Compounds  
VOLCAM Volcanic Ash Mission  
VPC Virtual Private Cloud  
VPN Virtual Private Network  
VRM Vector Ruggedness Measure  
VRML Virtual Reality Modeling Language  
VSAR Variable Synthetic Aperture Radar  
VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminal  
VSL NMi Van Swinden Laboratorium (The Netherlands)  
VTIR Visible and Thermal Infrared Radiometer  
W Back to top  
W/A Working Agreement  
WAAS Wide area augmentation system  
WAN Wide Area Network  
WCPT West Coast Precision Traverse  
WCRP World Climate Research Program  
WCS Web Coverage Service  
WDVI Weighted Difference Vegetation Index  
WebDAV Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning  
WEGENER Working Group of European Geoscientists for the Establishment of Networks for Earthquake Research  
WELD Web Enabled Landsat Data  
WESTPAC Western Pacific Laser Tracking Network Satellite  
WetCHARTs Wetland Methane Emissions and Uncertainty  
WETLAS Wettzell, Germany Laser Station  
Wetnet Network for Distribution and Joint Analysis of SSM/I  
WFF Wallops Flight Facility DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
WFOV Wide Field Of View  
WG Working Group  
WGCV Working Group on Calibration and Validation (CEOS)  
WGD Working Group on Data (CEOS)  
WGISS Working Group on Information Systems and Services  
WGS Wallops Ground System  
WGS 84 World Geodetic System 1984  
WHOI Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  
WiFS Wide Field-of-view-Sensor  
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access  
WING Western Pacific Integrated Network of GPS  
WIST Warehouse Inventory Search Tool  
WLRS Wettzell Laser Ranging System (Germany)  
WMO World Meteorological Organization  
WMS Web Map Service  
WMTS Web Map Tile Service  
WOCE World Ocean Circulation Experiment  
WOTIS Wallops Orbital Tracking Information System  
WPLS Western Pacific Laser Tracking Network Satellite  
WPLTN Western Pacific Laser Tracking Network  
WRAP Wildfire Research and Application Partnership  
WSC White Sands Complex  
WSGT White Sands Ground Terminal  
WSMC Western Space and Missile Center  
WSTF White Sands Test Facility DO NOT USE (per NASA Style Guide)
WTS Wallops Tracking Station  
WTU Wuhan Technical University (PRC)  
WUT Warsaw University of Technology (Poland)  
WVR Water vapor radiometer  
WWW World Wide Web *commonly referred to as www
WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get  
X Back to top  
X-SAR X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar  
XBT Expendable Bathythermograph  
xDLS eXtensible Distance Learning System  
XHTML eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language *commonly used as XHTML or xhtml
XML eXtensible Markup Language *commonly used as XML or xml
XP Exchange Point  
XPS XUV Photometer System  
XSL eXtensible Stylesheet Language  
XSLT eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation  
Y Back to top  
YIBS-CEO Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies - Center of Earth Observation  
YTD Year To Date  
Z Back to top  
ZIMLAS Zimmerwald, Switzerland Laser Station  
ZIMLAT Zimmerwald Laser and Astrometric Telescope (Switzerland)  
ZIPE ZentralInstitut der Physik der Erde (Germany)  
ZND Zenith neutral delay  

 

Last Updated