Saving our Skins: Glossary

Atmospheric Reflections from a a Lauder Star-gazer

My field of atmospheric science is littered with TLAs (Three Letter Abbreviations) and TFLAs (Three-or-Four Letter Acronyms), so I include here a glossary of terms and abbreviations to help guide you through that morass. Unfortunately, the character set that’s currently available on substack does not include subscripts or superscripts. to avoid ambiguity below, I’ve used the “^” character to represent superscripts.

Aerosol           Suspension of particles in a gas

BSRN                Baseline Surface Radiation Network

CFC                  Chlorofluorocarbon (used in refrigeration, e.g., CFC-11)

DIAL                Differential absorption lidar

DOAS               Differential optical absorption spectroscopy (sorry about that).

DSIR                 NZ’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (until 1992)

DU                    Dobson Unit, for measuring ozone

EEAP                UNEPs’ Environmental Effects (of ozone) Assessment Panel

ESA                   European Space Agency

IDL                    Interactive Data Language (computer data-processing software)

IR                      Infrared radiation, (at wavelengths longer than 700 nm, or 0.7 µm)

GHG                  Greenhouse gas that absorbs IR (e.g., CO2, CH4, N2O)

GPS                    Global Positioning System

GWP                  Global Warming potential, relative to CO2

JPL                        Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA

LIDAR               Light direction and ranging (optical equivalent of RADAR)

µm                      Micron (10^-6 m), unit of wavelength in the visible and IR regions

nm                      Nanometre (10^-9 m), unit of wavelength in the UV and visible regions

nmol/l                Nanomoles per litre, where 25(OH)D > 50 nmol/litre is optimal

NASA                USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCAR               USA’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder Colorado

NIWA               NZ’s, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (from 1992)

NOAA              USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOx                  Oxides of nitrogen (including NO2 and NO)

ODP                  Ozone Depletion Potential, relative to CFC-11

ODS                  Ozone Depleting Substance (e.g., CFC-11)

PMR                 Pressure modulator radiometer

ppm                  Parts per million by volume

ppb                   Parts per billion by volume

ppt                    Parts per trillion by volume

PSSC                Physical Science Study Committee (of USA in the 1960s)

SED       Standard Erythemal Dose of UV exposure (100 J/m^2 of UV-Ery)

TUV                 Tropospheric Ultra Violet. A computer program to calculate UV

USP                  University of the South Pacific

UNEP              United Nations Environment Program

USDA              United States Department of Agriculture

UV                   Ultraviolet (radiation)

UV-A               UV radiation falling within the wavelength range 315 to 400 nm

UV-B               UV radiation falling within the wavelength range 280 to 315 nm

UV-C               UV radiation falling within the wavelength range 100 to 280 nm

UV-Ery Erythemally-weighted (i.e., sun-burning) UV

UVI      UV index, a scale for sun-burning UV, from 0 to ~25 on Earth

Visible             Radiation from 400 to 700 nm that can be detected by the human eye

WHO               World Health Organisation

WMO              World Meteorological Organisation

ZMR                Zeeman Modulator Radiometer

25(OH)D          Calcidiol, a diagnostic marker for vitamin D in blood serum (nmol/l)

A Lauder decal featuring acronyms aplenty