glossary

A glossary of [](number of entries) 211 environmental data management acronyms and terms.

Ocean data management is a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms and terms that are like-yet-not-like normal language, in another word, jargon. This is an attempt to make some sense of it for a relative newcomer. There are other sites that define these terms such as the IOOS Acronym List, which has 639 acronyms defined. This page provides from my personal experience and does not pretend to be complete or even totally relevant. It now extends to southern African relevant acronyms and includes a collection of acronyms from IIOE-2.

There is a glossary of coastal terminology at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/swces/products/glossary.htm.

(For instructions on how to compile a HTML webpage from this Markdown document, see website-install.md)

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

A

ACC

Antarctic Circumpolar Current

ACDD

Attribute Convention for Dataset Discovery (was UDDC)

ACEP

African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme

ACT

Alliance for Coastal Technologies

ADCP

Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler

AMOC

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

ANSI

American National Standards Institute

AOML

Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (NOAA)

AOOS

Alaska Ocean Observing System

ArcGIS

A geographic information system (GIS) product from Esri.

Argo

A global float array. Argo is not an acronym.

Argos

Satellite-based system which collects, processes and disseminates environmental data from fixed and mobile platforms since 1978. Argos is not an acronym.

ARGOS

Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite. A US-DOD satellite in flight from 1999 - 2003.

ASCA

Agulhas System Climate Array

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

AWS

Amazon Web Services

B

BODC

British Oceanographic Data Centre

BOEM

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

BON

Biodiversity Observation Network

C

CalCOFI

California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations

CaRA

Caribbean Regional Association for Coastal Ocean Observing

CarICOOS

CarICOOS is the observing arm of the Caribbean Regional Association for Integrated Coastal Ocean Observing (CaRA)

Cartopy

A library providing cartographic tools for Python. A part of Scitools.

CBIBS

Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System

CDF

Common Data Format (CDF). Self-describing data format for the storage of scalar and multidimensional data in a platform- and discipline-independent way.

CDIP

Coastal Data Information Program

CDL

Common Data Language (Unidata). Text notation for netCDF objects and data.

CDM

Unidata's Common Data Model

CeNCOOS

Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System

CF

Climate and Forecast (CF)

CGS

Council for Geosciences (South Africa)

CKAN

Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network

CLIVAR

Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability and Change (WCRP)

COARDS

Cooperative Ocean/Atmosphere Research Data Service

CODATA

Committee on Data for Science and Technology (ICSU)

COMT

Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed

COOL

Coastal Ocean Observation Lab (Rutgers University)

CoRTAD

Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (NODC/CoRTAD)

CSIR

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa)

CSV

Comma Separated Values (sometimes CSV/TSV)

CSW

Catalog Services for the Web. Service provided by OGC.

D

DAFF

Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (South Africa)

DAS

Dataset Attribute Structure (as file extension .das)

DEA

Department of Environmental Affairs (South Africa)

DMAC

Data Management and Communications

DOD

Department of Defence (sometimes DoD).

DODS

Distributed Oceanographic Data Systems. DODS is a framework for data providers to share data with each other and with end users.

DSG

Data Systems Group, part of GSD Information and Technology Services

E

EBCDIC

Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

EMACS

Emacs Makes Any Computer Slow

EMMA

Enterprise Metadata Management Architecture

EMODnet

European Marine Observation and Data Network

ERDDAP

Environmental Research Division's Data Access Program

ERIS

Earth Resources Inventory System; Earth Resources Information System

Esri

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. Environmental research company, developers of ArcGIS

ESRL

Earth System Research Laboratory

F

FUSE

Filesystem in Userspace

G

GCOS

Global Climate Observing System

GEO

Group on Earth Observations

GeoJSON

GeoJSON is a JSON format for encoding a variety of geographic data structures. GeoJSON Specification

GEOSECS

Geochemical Ocean Section Study

GIS

Geographic Information System

GCOOS

Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System

GLOS

Great Lakes Observing System

GMT

Generic Mapping Tools

GODAE

Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment

GOOS

Global Ocean Observing System

GOOS SSC

Global Ocean Observing System Scientific Steering Committee

GO-SHIP

Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program

GrADS

Grid Analysis and Display System. GrADS is an interactive desktop tool that is used for easy access, manipulation, and visualization of earth science data

GRAs

GOOS Regional Alliances

GRIB

GRIdded Binary (or General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary form). GRIB is a concise data format commonly used in meteorology to store historical and forecast weather data.

GSD

Global Systems Division (ESRL)

GTS

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Telecommunications System (GTS) disseminates data in near-real-time to operational weather and ocean forecasting centers

GTSPP

Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme

H

HDF

Hierarchical Data Format version 4

HDF4

Hierarchical Data Format version 4, also known as HDF

HDF5

Hierarchical Data Format version 5

I

ICG/IOTWS

Intergovernmental Coordinating Group of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System

ICSU

International Council for Science (originally International Council of Scientific Unions)

IEP

Integrated Ecosystem Programme (monitoring programme of OCR)

IIOE-2

2nd International Indian Ocean Expedition

IMBER

Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research

IMOS

Australian Integrated Marine Observing System

INCOIS

Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services

INDARE

Indian Ocean Data Rescue Initiative

IndOOS

Indian Ocean Observing System

IOC

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO

IOCCP

International Ocean Carbon Coordination

IOCI3

Indian Ocean Climate Initiative Stage 3

IODE

International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange

IOGOOS

Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System

IOOS

Integrated Ocean Observing System

IORA

Indian Ocean Rim Association

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPT

Integrated Planning Team

IRIS

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

Iris

Iris is a Python library for Meteorology and Climatology, a part of Scitools.

ISO

THREDDS service that provides an ISO 19115 metadata representation of data and metadata structure. Packaged with ncISO.

J

JCOMM

Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission on Oceanography and Marine Meteorology

JGOFS

Joint Global Ocean Flux Study

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation

K

L

LAS

Live Access Server

M

MARACOOS

Mid-Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System

MLRA

Marine Living Resources Act (South Africa)

MLRF

Marine Living Resources Fund (South Africa)

MMI

Marine Metadata Interoperability.

MPA

Marine Protected Area

N

NANOOS

Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems

NCAR

National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCEI

National Centers for Environmental Information (NODC+NGDC+NCDC); National Center for Environmental Innovation; National Center for Education Information

NCEP

National Centers for Environmental Prediction

ncISO

Package of metadata services from NOAA/NGDC that provides NCML, ISO, and UDDC services.

NCML

THREDDS service provided by ncISO package that provides NcML representation and adds geospatial extent information if it has not already been documented.

NcML

NcML is an XML representation of netCDF metadata.

ncSOS

NcSOS adds a OGC SOS service to your existing THREDDS server.

NCSS

NetCDF Subset Service

ncWMS

Web Map Service for geospatial data that are stored in CF-compliant NetCDF files

NDBC

National Data Buoy Center

NEMA

(South African) National Environmental Management Act

NEMO

(South African) National Environmental Management of the Ocean. Policy whitepaper.

NEMO

Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean

NERACOOS

Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems

NESDIS

National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service

NetCDF

Network Common Data Form

NetCDF4

Version 4 of netCDF. Introduced the use of HDF5 as a storage layer into netCDF3, which allows use of groups, user-defined types, multiple unlimited dimensions, compression, data chunking, parallel I/O, and other features.

NEXRAD

Next Generation Weather Radar

NGDAC

National Glider Data Assembly Center

NGDC

National Geophysical Data Center (NOAA/NGDC)

NMFS

National Marine Fisheries Service

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NODC

National Oceanographic Data Center

NOSC

NOAA Observing Systems Council

NRF

National Research Foundation (South Africa)

NRT

near-real time

NRF

National Research Foundation (South Africa)

NSF

National Science Foundation (USA)

NWS

National Weather Service

O

O&C

Oceans and Coasts (branch of South African DEA)

O&M

Operations and Maintenance

OAR

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (NOAA)

OCR

Ocean and Coastal Research (chief directorate of O&C)

ODV

Ocean Data View. A data visualization software. Also a spreadsheet style data format, used in the software.

OGC

Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC)

OOI

Ocean Observatories Initiative

OPeNDAP

Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol. OPeNDAP is both the name of a non-profit organization and the commonly-used name of a protocol which the OPeNDAP organization has developed.

OR

Ocean Research (directorate of OCR)

ORR

Ontology Registry and Repository of MMI

ORSL

Ocean Remote Sensing Library

OSC

Observing Systems Committee (OSC), a subcommittee of the NOAA Observing Systems Council (NOSC)

OWSLib

Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Service Library, a python package

P

PacIOOS

Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System

PEA

Programmatic Environmental Assessment

PMEL

Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (NOAA)

pyCSW

Python Catalog Services for the Web (OGC)

PyDAP

Pydap is a pure Python library implementing the Data Access Protocol, also known as DODS or OPeNDAP.

Q

QARTOD

Quality Assurance of Real-Time Ocean Data

QC

Quality Control

R

RA

Regional Association

REST

Representational state transfer (REST) is an abstraction of the architecture of the World Wide Web; more precisely, REST is an architectural style consisting of a coordinated set of architectural constraints applied to components, connectors, and data elements, within a distributed hypermedia system.

RESTful

A descriptor or link that conforms with REST concept.

RFB

Remote Frame Buffer

ROOS

Regional Ocean Observing System

S

SADCO

Southern African Data Centre for Oceanography

SAEON

South African Environmental Observation Network

SANCCOB

Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds

SANCOR

South African Network for Coastal and Oceanic Research

SANReN

South African National Research Network

SAWS

South African Weather Service

SAVE

South Atlantic Ventilation Experiment

Scitools

Scitools comprises Iris and Cartopy, open source Python libraries initially created by the UK Met Office to enable the visualisation of weather and climate data.

SCCOOS

Southern California Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System

SCOR

Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research

SEAGOOS

South East Asian Global Ocean Observing System

SECOORA

Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association

SEED

Standard for the Exchange of Earthquake Data

SEREAD

Scientific Educational Resources and Experience Associated with the Deployment of Argo Profiling Floats in the South Pacific Ocean

SIBER

Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemical and Ecological Research

SMS

Specialist Monitoring Services (DEA:O&C:SMS)

SOCCO

Southern Ocean Carbon & Climate Observatory

SOPAC

SPCs Division of the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission

SOS

Sensor Observation Service

SPC

Secretariat of the Pacific Community

STAR

Center for Satellite Applications and Research (NOAA/NESDIS)

SURA

Southeastern Universities Research Association

SWE

Sensor Web Enablement

T

TableDAP

TableDAP lets you use the OPeNDAP constraint/selection protocol to request data subsets, graphs, and maps from tabular datasets (for example, buoy data).

TDS

THREDDS Data Server

TENET

Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa

THREDDS

Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services

TPIO

(NOAA) Technology, Planning and Integration for Observation program

TSV

Tab Separated Values (CSV/TSV)

TTO

Transient Tracers in the Oceans

U

UAF

Unified Access Framework

University of Alaska, Fairbanks

UCAR

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

UDDC

Unidata Data Discovery Convention? Former acronym for ACDD. A metadata rubric service provided by the THREDDS server extension library.

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

URI

uniform resource identifier (comprises a URL and/or a URN).

URL

uniform resource locator

URN

uniform resource name

USNODC

United States National Oceanographic Data Center

UUID

Universally Unique Identifier

V

VM

virtual machine

VNC

Virtual Network Computing

vocabulary

This is a computer science term, not grammar. The same yet subtly different. From IOOS Vocabularies README, "Controlled vocabularies clarify the meaning of common concepts and enable more interoperable data systems through more precise definitions and machine readable online references."

VPN

Virtual Private Network

W

WCRP

World Climate Research Programme

WCS

Web Coverage Service - The Open Geospatial Consortium Web Coverage Service Interface Standard (WCS) defines Web-based retrieval of coverages that is, digital geospatial information representing space/time-varying phenomena.

WDC

World Data Center (for Oceanography)

WIS

WMO Information System (WIS), the next generation of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Telecommunications System (GTS), disseminates data in near-real-time to operational weather and ocean forecasting centers.

WMO

World Meteorological Organization

WMS

Web Map Service (see ncWMS)

WOA

World Ocean Atlas

WOCE

World Ocean Circulation Experiment

WOD

World Ocean Database

WSDD

Web Service Description Document

X

Y

Z