S2K Weather Acronyms

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olddude
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S2K Weather Acronyms

#1 Postby olddude » Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:32 pm

This is an effort for the less weather-savvy of us. In honor of my 100th post I think it is time I try to offer something back to this board.
I have learned a great deal and gleaned valuable information but many times on this board I will come upon an acronym in which I am clueless as to the meaning. Many are on the Jetstream list http://www.srh.weather.gov/jetstream/append/acronyms_a.htm but alas, many are not. I hope this list helps some other folks. If anyone wishes to add to this list I would appreciate it.

ACE - Accumulated Cyclone Energy
AFWA - Air Force Weather Agency
AOML - Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
APD – Average wave period
ARB - Arabian Sea
ARWO - Aerial Recon Wx Officer (USAF - Flight METs... these are the people that push out the OBS from the aircraft... their computer is connected to the CARCAH at the NHC and Keesler AFB via SATCOM).
ATCF- Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast
AWC - Aviation Weather Center, part of NCEP
ATL – Atlantic basin
ATMP – Air Temperature
ATTM - At this time
AVN - Aviation Run of the NCEP Medium Range Forecast(MRF) model
BAM - Beta and Advection model
BAMD - BAM Deep (fore deep/vertically tall systems)
BAMM - BAM Medium (for medium-depth systems)
BAMS - BAM Shallow (for weak systems/systems steered by shallow aspects of the atmosphere)
BMG - Badan Meteorologi dan Geofisika (TCWC Jakarta, becomes operational for 2007-08 season)
BOC - Bay of Campeche
BOM-Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)
BT - Bathythermograph
BVI – British Virgin Islands
CA - Central America
CAA - Cold air advection
CALs - Calibrations for Wx Computers onboard Aircraft
CAPE - Convective Available Potential Energy
CARCAH - Chief Aerial Reconnaissance Coordination, All Hurricanes (this person communicates with NHC and CARCAH (North) for the Storm MSNs.)
CARIB - Caribbean Basin
Cat - Category
CCON - Corrected CONU Consensus (*TEST*)
CDO - Central Dense Overcast
CGUN - Corrected GUNA Consensus (*TEST*)
CIMSS – Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies
CIRA - Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere
CLIPER - CLImatology and PERsistence statistical track forecast model
CMA - China Meteorological Administration
CMC – Canadian Meteorological Center model
COA - Coast of Africa
CONJ - JTWC Consensus of NGAI, EGAI, JGAI, GFAI, JTYI, AFWI, COWI, WBAI, TCLI, JAVI
CONU – Consensus track from at least two of the five models (GFDI, AVNI, NGPI, UKMI, GFNI)
CONUS - continental US
CONW - Consensus of NGPI, EGRI, JGSI, GFNI, JTYI, AFWI, COWI, WBAI, TCLI, JAVI
CPAC - Central Pacific
CPC – Climate Prediction Center
CPHC – Central Pacific Hurricane Center
CV – Cape Verde
dam or dm - decameters, referring to 500mb ridge/trough strength in terms of heights (e.g. a 588 dm ridge)
DEWP – Dewpoint
DMAX - Diurnal maximum
DPD – Dominant Wave Period
ECMWF - European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (it's another model, called the Euro or the EC for short)
EI - Explosive Intensification
EMC – Environmental Modeling Center
ENSO – El Niño Southern Oscillation
EPAC –Eastern Pacific
ERC – Eyewall Replacement Cycle
ET - Extratropical Transition
FCST - Forecast
FIX - Center of Circulation Location (where the sonde is dropped)
FL - Flight Level (in 1,000 ft intervals ie. FL099 means 9900ft.)
FMS - Fiji Meteorological Service (RSMC Nadi)
FROPA - Frontal passage
FSU MM5 – Florida State University model
FSUSE - Florida State University Superensemble
GEFS - Global Ensemble Forecast System model
GFDL - Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory model
GFS - Global Forecast System model
GHCC – Global Hydrology and Climate Center
GOES - Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite
GOH - Gulf Of Honduras
GOM – Gulf of Mexico
GST – gust
GMT – Greenwich Mean Time = UTC/Zulu
GUNA – Consensus track from all four models (GFDI, AVNI, NGPI, and UKMI)
GUNS - Consensus of GFDI, UKMI and NGPI models
HEAT – Heat Index
HDOBs - High Density Observations
HKO - Hong Kong Observatory
hPa - hectopascals (equivalent to mb)
HPC - Hydrometerological Prediction Center
HRD - Hurricane Research Division
HSEI - Historical Significant Events Imagery
HWRF - Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model
IMD-Indian Meteorology Department
ITCZ - Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone
ITPTF - in the present time frame
ITTF - in this time frame
JMA-Japanese Meteorological Agency
JTWC-Joint Typhoon Warning Center (US Military Official Warning Agency)
KMA - Korean Meteorological Agency
KT – knots
LBAR - Limited area sine transform BARotropic model
LL (UL) - low level (upper level)
LLC – Low Level Circulation
LLI - Low Level Invest ~500-1500ft above SFC
LLJ - Low Level Jet
LPA - Low Pressure Area
MB – Millibars
MCD - Mesoscale discussion
MCS - Mesoscale Convective System
MDL – Meteorological Development Laboratory
MEI - Multivariate ENSO Index
MEOW - Maximum Envelope of Water
MET - Meteorologist
MF - Meteo-France (RSMC La Reunion)
MJO - Madden-Julian Oscillation
MPH – Miles per hour
MRF – Medium Range Forecast model
MSG – Meteosat Second Generation
MSN – Missions
MSLP – Mean Sea Level Pressure
MWD – Mean Wave Direction
MVFR - Marginal Visual Flight Rules
MX – Mexico
NAM - North American Mesoscale model
NAO – North Atlantic Oscillation
NCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research
NCDC - National Climate Data Center
NCEP - National Centers for Environmental Prediction
NDBC - National Data Bouy Center
NESDIS - National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service
NHC - National Hurricane Center
NHC90/NHC91- statistical track forecast models.
NIO- North Indian Ocean
NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOGAPS - U.S. Navy's global spectral forecast model
NRL - Naval Research Laboratory
NSSL - National Severe Storms Laboratory
NWS – National Weather Service
Obs – observations
PAGASA-Philippine Astronomical Geophysical Atmospheric Services Administration
P.R. – Puerto Rico
PDO – Pacific Decadal Oscillation
PMD - Pakistan Meteorological Department
POD - Plan of the Day (Recon flights)
POES - Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite
PRES – Atmospheric pressure
PWAT - Precipitable water
QS - QuikSCAT
RECCO - Reconnaissance Observation
RI - rapid intensification
RSMC - Regional Specialized Meteorological Center
RTMA - Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis model
S2K - Storm2k
SAB/SSD - Satellite Analysis Branch/Satellite Services Division
SAL – Saharan Air Layer
SATCOM - Satellite Communications (onboard all Hurricane Hunter planes and at 2 ground stations)
SEC - Space Environment Center, part of NCEP
Sfc - surface
SFMR - Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (we call it the smirf).... it measures wave frequencies from the sfc for wind direction/speed of systems
SHIPS - Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme model
SIO-South Indian Ocean
SLOSH - Sea, Lake, and Overland Surge from Hurricanes
SPC - Storm Prediction Center
SREF - Short Range Ensemble Forecast
SSD - Satellite Services Division
SPAC - South Pacific
SST – Sea Surface Temperature
STD - Subtropical depression
STJ - Subtropical jet
STS – Subtropical Storm/ Severe Tropical Storm in the Western Pacific basin
STY-Supertyphoon (used by JTWC only and not Tokyo RSMC)
SUP - Supercell
T-number = Dvorak current intensity (1.0-8.0)
TAFB - Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch
TC – Tropical Cyclone
TCHP - Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential
TCWC - Tropical Cyclone Warning Center
TCFA - Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert
TCR - Tropical Cyclone Report (used to be called preliminary reports)
TCPOD - Tropical Cyclone Plan of the Day
TD – Tropical Depression
TPC – Tropical Prediction Center
TROF - trough
TS – Tropical Storm
TSTM - thunderstorm
TUTT - tropical upper tropospheric trough
TW – Tropical Wave
TWC - The Weather Channel
TWO – Tropical Weather Outlook
TY - typhoon
UL (LL) - upper level (low level)
ULL – Upper level Low
U.S.VI – United States Virgin Islands
UTC – Coordinated Universal Time = GMT/Zulu
UKMET - global forecast model run by the UK Meteorological Office
VDM - Vortex Data Message
WAA - Warm air advection
WDIR – Wind Direction
WFO - [National Weather Service] Weather Forecast Office (NWSFO is National Weather Service Forecast Office, FA is Forecast Area
WADL - West African Disturbance Line
WMO - World Meteorological Organization
WPAC - western Pacific
WSPD – Wind Speed
WTMP – Water Temperature
WVHT – Wave Height
WU - Weather Underground
WW - weather watch box (replace second W with T for tornado, S for severe tstorm)
WX - Weather
XTRAP: extrapolated track
Z – Zulu/GMT/UTC


Thanks, Scott
Tryin' to reason with hurricane season.
Last edited by olddude on Fri May 01, 2009 9:33 pm, edited 10 times in total.
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#2 Postby southerngale » Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:37 pm

I'm going to sticky this for now. Maybe in the future, we can have something that links to these at the top of the page. For now, please feel free to add to the list by replying and I, or another member of the staff, can add it to the list above.

Thanks, Scott.
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#3 Postby cycloneye » Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:47 pm

Here are a few more:

NCDC=National Climate Data Center

HSEI=Historical Significant Events Imagery

NESDIS=National Enviromental Sattelite Data Information Service

NDBC=National Data Bouy Center
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#4 Postby Cyclenall » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:01 pm

Here is another:

TCHP - Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#5 Postby wxmann_91 » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:59 pm

Good thread. Most of those acronyms though are not used; the ones used most frequently here are left in the quote below.

olddude wrote:
AOML - Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorlogical Laboratory
BAM - Beta and Advection model
CLIPER - CLImatology and PERsistence statistical track forecast model
CMC – Canadian Meteorological Center model
CPC – Climate Prediction Center
CPHC – Central Pacific Hurricane Center
CV – Cape Verde
ENSO – El Niño Southern Oscillation
EPAC –Eastern Pacific
ERC – Eyewall Replacement Cycle
ET - Extratropical
FROPA - Frontal passage
FSU MM5 – Florida State University model
GFDL - Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory model
GFS - Global Forecast System model
GHCC – Global Hydrology and Climate Center
GOES - Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite
GOM – Gulf of Mexico
HWRF - Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model
HRD - Hurricane Research Division
HSEI - Historical Significant Events Imagery
KT – knots
LBAR - Limited area sine transform BARotropic model
LLC – Low Level Circulation
MB – millibars
MEI - Multivariate ENSO Index
MET - Meteorologist
MJO - Madden-Julian Oscillation
MPH – Miles pre hour
MX – Mexico
NAM - North American Mesoscale model
NAO – North Atlantic Oscillation
NHC - National Hurricane Center
NHC90/NHC91- statistical track forecast models.
NCDC - National Climate Data Center
NCEP - National Centers for Environmental Prediction
NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOGAPS - U.S. Navy's global spectral forecast model
NRL - Naval Research Laboratory
NWS – National Weather Service
Obs – observations
PDO – Pacific Decadal Ossilation
SAL – Saharan Air Layer
Sfc - surface
SHIPS - Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme model
SSD - Satellite Services Division
SST – Sea Surface Temperature
STS – Subtropical Storm
TC – Tropical Cyclone
TCHP - Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential
TD – Tropical Depression
TPC – Tropical Prediction Center
TS – Tropical Storm
TWO – Tropical Weather Outlook
UKMET - global forecast model run by the UK Meteorological Office
ULL – Upper level Low


I'll add some of my own:

Cat - Category
RI - rapid intensification
SPC - Storm Prediction Center
WFO - [National Weather Service] Weather Forecast Office (NWSFO is National Weather Service Forecast Office, FA is Forecast Area)
NSSL - National Severe Storms Laboratory
HPC - Hydrometerological Prediction Center
dam or dm - decameters, refering to 500mb ridge/trough strength in terms of heights (e.g. a 588 dm ridge)
TROF - trough
TUTT - tropical upper tropospheric trough
ATL - Atlantic
WPAC - western Pacific
Last edited by wxmann_91 on Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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MiamiensisWx

Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#6 Postby MiamiensisWx » Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:30 pm

wxmann_91 wrote:I'll add some of my own:

Cat - Category
RI - rapid intensification
SPC - Storm Prediction Center
WFO - [National Weather Service] Weather Forecast Office (NWSFO is National Weather Service Forecast Office, FA is Forecast Area)
NSSL - National Severe Storms Laboratory
HPC - Hydrometerological Prediction Center
dam or dm - decameters, refering to 500mb ridge/trough strength in terms of heights (e.g. a 588 dm ridge)
TROF - trough
TUTT - tropical upper atmospheric trough
ATL - Atlantic
WPAC - western Pacific

I think you made an error. You should place "tropospheric" in that section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Upper_Tropospheric_Trough
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#7 Postby Cyclenall » Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:44 pm

More:

Cpac - Central Pacific
Spac - South Pacific
NI - North Indian
SI - South Indian
EI - Explosive Intensification
CDO - Central Dense Overcast
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#8 Postby wxmann_91 » Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:24 pm

MiamiensisWx wrote:
I think you made an error. You should place "tropospheric" in that section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Upper_Tropospheric_Trough

No idea why I did that. Brain was broken at the time. Thanks for letting me know :)

Corrected now
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#9 Postby Aslkahuna » Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:49 pm

JTWC-Joint Typhoon Warning Center (US Military Official Warning Agency)
PAGASA-Philippine Astronomical Geophysical Atmospheric Services Administration
STY-Supertyphoon (used by JTWC only and not Tokyo RSMC)
BOB-Bay of Bengal
NIO- North Indian Ocean
SIO-South Indian Ocean
BOM-Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)
IMD-Indian Meteorology Department
JMA-Japanese Meteorological Agency

Steve
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#10 Postby Cyclenall » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:15 pm

I can't believe we missed this one:

ITCZ - Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone
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#11 Postby chadtm80 » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:28 pm

COA used a lot.. Coast of Africa
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#12 Postby southerngreen » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:32 pm

well, that is so helpful. (i found a lot i DIDN'T know)
thank ya'll!
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#13 Postby pojo » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:27 pm

Here are a few that I'll be using....

POD - Plan of the Day (Recon flights)
ATL - Atlantic Basin
CARIB - Caribbean Basin
HDOBs - High Density Observations
RECCO - Reconnaissance Observation
CALs - Calibrations for Wx Computers onboard Aircraft
FL - Flight Level (in 1,000 ft intervals ie. FL099 means 9900ft.)
LLI - Low Level Invest ~500-1500ft above SFC
FIX - Center of Circulation Location (where the sonde is dropped)
SFMR - Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (we call it the smirf).... it measures wave frequencies from the sfc for wind direction/speed of systems
ARWO - Aerial Recon Wx Officer (USAF - Flight METs... these are the people that push out the OBS from the aircraft... their computer is connected to the CARCAH at the NHC and Keesler AFB via SATCOM).
SATCOM - Satellite Communications (onboard all Hurricane Hunter planes and at 2 ground stations)
CARCAH - Chief Aerial Reconnaissance Coordination, All Hurricanes (this person communicates with NHC and CARCAH (North) for the Storm MSNs.)
MSN - Missions
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#14 Postby Coredesat » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:47 pm

QS - QuikSCAT

RSMC - Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre
TCWC - Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre
FMS - Fiji Meteorological Service (RSMC Nadi)
MF - Meteo-France (RSMC La Reunion)
BMG - Badan Meteorologi dan Geofisika (TCWC Jakarta, becomes operational for 2007-08 season)

hPa - hectopascals (equivalent to mb)
STD - subtropical depression
TY - typhoon

STS may also mean Severe Tropical Storm in the Western Pacific basin.
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#15 Postby abjolly » Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:36 pm

Someone once posted BOC - took me a while to figure out it was Bay of Campeche
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#16 Postby Recurve » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:13 pm

Didn't find these above

ATTM: At this time
CAPE: Convective Available Potential Energy
PWAT: Precipitable water
MVFR: Marginal Visual Flight Rules
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Re: S2K Weather Acronyms

#17 Postby AnnularCane » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:22 pm

How about CONUS, for continental US. I couldn't figure that one out for a long time.
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#18 Postby Chacor » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:32 pm

Why has no one mentioned WX? :lol:
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Re:

#19 Postby WindRunner » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:38 pm

Coredesat wrote:QS - QuikSCAT

RSMC - Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre
TCWC - Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre
FMS - Fiji Meteorological Service (RSMC Nadi)
MF - Meteo-France (RSMC La Reunion)
BMG - Badan Meteorologi dan Geofisika (TCWC Jakarta, becomes operational for 2007-08 season)

hPa - hectopascals (equivalent to mb)
STD - subtropical depression
TY - typhoon

STS may also mean Severe Tropical Storm in the Western Pacific basin.


Surely you mean became operational, as it is now the 2007-08 South Pacific season ;)


SREF - Short Range Ensemble Forecast
ECMWF - European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (it's another model, called the Euro or the EC for short)
FSUSE - Florida State University Superensemble
POES - Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite
KMA - Korean Meteorological Agency
SEC - Space Environment Center, part of NCEP
AWC - Aviation Weather Center, part of NCEP

In relation to the BAM models, you'll always see them as one of the following:
BAMS - BAM Shallow (for weak systems/systems steered by shallow aspects of the atmoshpere)
BAMM - BAM Medium (for medium-depth systems)
BAMD - BAM Deep (fore deep/vertically tall systems)

And a correction - ET is technically extratropical transition, though it is often used just to indicate "extratropical" as well.
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#20 Postby Chacor » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:41 pm

Actually, no, it doesn't start until October/November officially, the "TC year" is what starts July 1, according to the op plan.
Last edited by Chacor on Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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