Earth Observation Data Acronyms and Symbols

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

Earth Observation Data Acronyms and Symbols

Find Data

By Platform

By Topic

Data Catalog

Data Tools