Overview and Purpose:
This is supplemental material to the BAMS Annual State of the Climate Report. There are definitions and references to some of the indices not thoroughly explained in the publication.
Definitions and References of Indices and Scales:
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Glossary: - acronyms / definitions
Acronyms:
- AL - Aleutian Low (semi-permanent pressure center)
- AO - Arctic Oscillation
- BAMS - Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
- BSA - Beaufort Sea Anticyclone
- CAMS - Climate Anomaly Monitoring System
- CAPE - Convective Available Potential Energy
- CFC - Chlorofluorocarbons
- C.L or C.I. - Confidence level or confidence interval
- CMDL - Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (part of NOAA)
- EGEE - Etude de la circulation oceanique et de sa variabilite dans le Golfe de Guinee [pdf file link] - (French research cruise program for the Gulf of Guinea)
- GCM - General Circulation Model (sometimes preceded either by A - Atmospheric, or AO - Atmosphere-Ocean)
- GHA - Greater Horn of Africa (Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya)
- GHCN - Global Historical Climatology Network
- GPCC - Global Precipitation Climatology Centre
- HFCs - Halogonated fluorocarbons
- HCFCs - Halogenated Chlorofluorocarbons
- IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- ITCZ - Intertropical Convergence Zone
- JTWC - Joint Typhoon Warning Center
- MDR - Main Development Region [(of Atlantic hurricanes) - region bounded by 10oN - 20oN, 20oW - 90oW]
- MSU - Microwave Sounding Unit
- NAO - North Atlantic Oscillation
- NCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research
- NCDC - National Climatic Data Center (part of NOAA)
- NCEP - National Center for Environmental Prediction (part of NOAA)
- NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- OLR - Outgoing Longwave Radiation
- OPI - OLR Precipitation Index (an index derived from CAMS estimates of OLR as well as precipitation measured at the surface)
- PDO - Pacific Decadal Oscillation
- PNA - Pacific North American pattern
- QBO - Quasi-biennial Oscillation
- RSS - Remote Sensing Systems
- SPCZ - South Pacific Convergence Zone
- SST - Sea Surface Temperature
- UAH - University of Alabama, Huntsville
- WHO - World Health Organization (part of the United Nations)
- WMO - World Meteorological Organization
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For further information on the State of the Climate reports, contact:
Karsten Shein or Jay Lawrimore
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: EditorSOC.NCDC@noaa.gov
For all climate questions other than questions concerning this report, please contact the National Climatic Data Center's Climate Services Division:
Climate Services Division
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4876
phone: 828-271-4800
email: ncdc.info@noaa.gov
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