FSL in Review 2001 - 2002

Cover/Title Page


Organizational Chart


Office of the Director


Office of Administration
and Research


Information and
Technology Services


Forecast Research
Division


Demonstration Division


Systems Development
Division


Aviation Division


Modernization Division


International Division


Publications


Acronyms and Terms


Figures Listing



Contact the Editor
Nita Fullerton


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Will von Dauster
John Osborn


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FIR 2001 - 2002 Acronyms/Terms MastHead
ACARS ARINC Communications Addressing and Reporting System (supplies automated aircraft reports)
ACDWG Atmospheric Center of Data Working Group
ACG Advanced Computing Group (FSL)
AD Aviation Division (FSL)
ADDS Aviation Digital Data Service
AER AWIPS Enhancement Research
AES Atmospheric Environment Service (Canada)
AFGWC Air Force Global Weather Center
AFOS Automation of Field Operations and Services
AFPS AWIPS Forecast Preparation System
AFWA U.S. Air Force Weather Agency
AFWG AFPS Forecaster Working Group
AGFS Aviation Gridded Forecast Systems
AGL Above Ground Level
AIDA Archive 1 Data Analyzer
AIRMET AIRmen METeorological information
AIRS Atmospheric Infrared Sounder
ALERT Automated Local Evaluation in Real Time
AMDAR Aircraft Meteorological DAta Reporting
AMS American Meteorological Society
AMVP Aviation Model Verification Program
ANL Argonne National Laboratory
AP anomalous propagation
ARINC Aeronautical Radio, Inc.
ARM Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (a Department of Energy program)
ARPS Advanced Regional Prediction System
ARRL Amateur Radio Relay League
ARTCC Air Route Traffic Control Centers
ASD Aircraft Situation Display
ASOS Automated Surface Observing System (an National Weather Service system)
ATC Air Traffic Control
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATMS Advanced Traffic Management System
AVARs Aircraft Vertical Accelerometer Reports
AVHRR Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer
AVN Aviation model at NCEP
AWC Aviation Weather Center (National Weather Service)
AWDP Aviation Weather Development Program
AWDS Automated Weather Distribution System
AWIPS Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System
AWN Aviation Weather Network
AWRP Aviation Weather Research Program


BERS Balloon Envelop Recovery System
BLP Boundary Layer Profiler
BUFR Binary Universal Form


CAG Convective Airspace Guidance
CAPE Convective Available Potential Energy
CAPS Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms
CARDS Comprehensive Aerological Reference Dataset
CART Cloud and Radiation Testbed (a heavily instrumented site in Oklahoma)
CDE Common Desktop Environment
CD-ROM Compact Disc-Read Only Memory
CGM Computer Graphics Metafile
CIn Convective Inhibition
CIRA Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO)
CIRES Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (University of Colorado, Boulder, CO)
CIRP Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction (NOAA)
CIT Convection-Induced Turbulence
CLIP Compressed Serial Line Internet Protocol
CM Configuration Management
CMA China Meteorological Administration
CMDL Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (one NOAA's 12 research laboratories)
CMIST Configuration Management Integrated Support Tool (developed at FSL)
COADS Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Dataset
COAMPS Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (U.S. Navy's regional weather model)
COMET® Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training (NCAR)
CONDUIT Cooperative Opportunity for NCEP Data Using IDD Technology
CONUS continental (or conterminous) United States
CO-OPS Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services
CORS Continuously Operating Reference Station
COTS commercial off-the-shelf software
CSU-RAMS Colorado State University - Regional Atmospheric Modeling System
CWB Central Weather Bureau in Taipei, Taiwan


DAM Data Access Management (object-oriented software)
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DCS Direct Connect Service
DD Demonstration Division (FSL)
DDS Domestic Data Service (NWS)
DGPS Differential Global Positioning System
DIFAX Digital facsimile map (a standard circuit of weather information produced by the NWS)
DLT Digital Linear Tape
DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (U.S. Air Force)
DNS Domain Name System
DOD Department of Defense
DOE Department of Energy
DOT Department of Transportation
DSAT Distributed System Administration Team
DSRS Data Storage and Retrieval System


ECMWF European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
EMC Environmental Modeling Center (one of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction)
EMDS Emergency Management Decision Support system (the dissemination component of LDAD)
EOCs Emergency Operations Centers
EOS Earth Observing System
EOSDIS EOS Data and Information System (the data management component of EOS)
EOSS Edge Of Space Science
ESDIM Environmental Science Data Integration and Management
Eta model A hydrostatic model that employs the eta vertical coordinate (operational at NCEP)
ETL Environmental Technology Laboratory (one of NOAA's 12 research laboratories)


FAA Federal Aviation Administration
FDDA Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation
FIRE First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Projects Regional Experiment
FRC Front Range Consortium
FRD Forecast Research Division (FSL)
FSL Forecast Systems Laboratory (one of NOAA's 12 research laboratories)
FTP File Transfer Protocol
FTSC FSL Technical Steering Committee
FX FSL's X-window workstation


GAINS Global Air-ocean IN-situ System (shear-directed balloon project at FSL)
GAPP GEWEX American Prediction Project
GCIP GEWEX Continental-scale International Project
GDAS Global Data Assimilation System
GDP Government Development Platforms
GEMPAK General Meteorological Package
GEWEX Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment
GFE Graphical Forecast Editor
GFS Global Forecast System
GFV Graphical Forecast Viewer
GIMPAP GOES I-M Product Assurance Plan
GINI GOES-I NOAAPORT Interface
GIS Geographic Information Systems
GLGS GOES Local Groundstation System
GLOBE Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment
GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (a NOAA weather satellite)
GPS Global Positioning System
GPS-CORS Global Positioning System Continuously Operating Reference Stations
GPS-IPW Global Positioning System-Integrated Precipitable Water
GRIB Gridded Binary
GSOS GPS Surface Observing System
GTS Geophysical Telecommunications Service
GTS Global Telecommunication System
GUI Graphical User Interface
GVAR GOES Variable (data)
GWINDEX GOES rapid-scan Winds Experiment


HADS Hydrometeorological Automated Data System
HAMS Hardware Assets Management System
HCSN High-Capacity Satellite Network
HDS High-resolution Data Service
HMS Hungarian Meteorological Service
HPCC High-Performance Computing and Communications
HPCS High-Performance Computing Section (Aviation Division)
HPD Hourly Precipitation Data
HSM Hierarchical Storage Management
HTML HyperText Markup Lanaguage


IDS International Data Service
IDS Intrusion Detection System
IFPS Interactive Forecast Preparation System
IGS International Geodetic Service
IHOP International H20 Project
IIPS International Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (an annual AMS conference)
IO Input/Output
IP Internet Protocol
ISCCP International Satellite Cloud Climatology Projects
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISP Internet Service Provider
IT Information Transport
ITFA Integrated Turbulence Forecasting Algorithm
ITS Information and Technology Services (FSL)
ITSO Information Technology Security Officer
IVVS RTVS Interactive Verification and Visualization System


JCSDA Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation
JVNTSC John Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (referred to as the Volpe center in this report)


KMA Korean Meteorological Administration


LAPB Local Analysis and Prediction Branch (FSL)
LAPS Local Analysis and Prediction System (developed at FSL)
LDA Local Data Acquisition
LDAD Local Data Acquisition and Dissemination (a component of AWIPS)
LDM Local Data Management
LIDAR lightning detection system


MAB Meteorological Applications Branch (FSL Forecast Research Division)
MADIS Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System
MAPS Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction System
MAPS/RUC MAPS is the research version of the Rapid Update Cycle, the operational version running at NCEP
Mbps Megabits Per Second
MCCs Mesoscale Convective Complexes
MCS Mesoscale Convective System
MD Modernization Division (FSL)
MDCRS Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting System
METAR METeorological Aviation Reports
MHz Megahertz (unit of frequency: one million cycles per second)
MM5 Version 5 of the Pennsylvania State/NCAR Mesoscale Model
MM90 The parallelized version of MM5
MMAC Multi-Media Access Center (Cabletron repeater)
MPI Message Passing Interface
MPIF Message Passing Interface Forum
MPOA Multi-Protocol Over ATM
MPP Massively Parallel Processor
MRF Medium-Range Forecast (refers to a global prediction model run at NCEP)
MSAS MAPS Surface Analysis System
MSC Multiple Successive Correction
MSS Mass Storage System


NAOS North American Atmospheric Observing System
NAS National Airspace System
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
N-AWIPS National Centers Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System
NCDC National Climatic Data Center (one of six national centers under NCEP)
NCEP National Centers for Environmental Protection
NDBC National Data Buoy Center
NEM NWP Explicit Microphysics (model developed at FSL)
NESDIS National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (a line office of NOAA)
NetCDF Network Common Data Form
NEWS NOAA Earth Watch Service
NEXRAD Next-generation Radar
NFS Network File System
NGDC National Geophysical Data Center
NGIT Northrop Grumman Information Technologies (AWIPS contractor)
NGM Nested Grid Model (a limited-area prediction model run at NCEP)
NGS National Geodetic Survey
NIC Network Interface Card
NIFC National Interagency Fire Center
NIMBUS Networked Information Management client-Based User Service
NNT Nearest Neighbor Tool (developed at FSL)
NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce)
NOAAPORT Access to NOAA real-time database systems (not an acronym)
NOAASIS NOAA Satellite Information System
NODC National Oceanic Data Center
NOGAPS U.S. Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System
NOWrad National Operational Weather radar (a tradename of WSI Corporation)
NOWrad-6 A new product derived from WSI Corporation national radar reflectivity data
NPI NEXRAD Product Interface
NPN NOAA Profiler Network (previously known as the Wind Profiler Demonstration Project)
NPOESS National Polar Orbiter Environmental Satellite System
NPS Numerical Product Service
NRC National Research Council
NSDA National Space Development Agency of Japan
NSF National Science Foundation
NTP Network Time Protocol
NTRANS metacode translator
NWP Numerical Weather Prediction
NWS National Weather Service (a NOAA line office)
NWSFO National Weather Service Forecast Office
NWSTG National Weather Service Telecommunications Gateway


OAR Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (a NOAA line office)
ODS Object Data System
OPTRAN Optical Test Transmittance model
OSPF Open Shortest Path First (routing algorithm)
OSS Observation System Simulation
OSSE Observation System Simulation Experiment
OT&E; Operational Test and Evaluation


PACJET Pacific Landfalling Jets Experiment
PACS Pan-American Climate Studies
PCC Profiler Control Center (FSL)
PCMS Process and Change Management System
PDAM Point Data Access and Management
PDT Product Development Team
Perl Practical Extraction and Report Language
PHIGS Portable Hierarchical Image and Graphic Standard
PIREPs pilot reports
PMP possible maximum precipitation
POD probability of detection
POES Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite
POSIX Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments
POSSE partial observations system simulation experiment
PPO Profiler Program Office (Boulder, CO)
PPP Parallelizing PreProcessor
PPP Point-to-Point Protocol
PPS Public Products Service, one of the NWS Family of Services
PSOS Profiler Surface Observing System
PUP Principal User Position workstation
PWV precipitable water vapor


QCMS Quality Control Monitoring System
QG Quasi-Geostrophic Analysis
QNH Quasi-nonhydrostatic model


RAID Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks
RAMS Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (developed at the Colorado State University)
RAOB radiosonde observation
RAPB Regional Analysis and Prediction Branch (within the Forecast Research Division of FSL)
RASS Radio Acoustic Sounding System
RAWS Remote Automated Weather System
RCM WSR-88D Radar Coded Message
RDAM Radar Data Access and Management format
RFC River Forecast Center
RIDDS Radar Interface and Data Distribution System
RINEX Receiver Independent Exchange format
RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computer
ROC Regional Operating Cooperative
RPG Radar Product Generator
RPS Routine Product Set
RSA Range Standardization and Augmentation project – a weather system at the U.S. Space Center
RSAS Rapid Update Cycle Surface Assimilation System
RTTOV Radiative Transfer (RT) model for Television Infrared Orbiting Satellite (TIROS) Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS)
RTVS Real-Time Verification System (developed in FSL's Aviation Division)
RUC Rapid Update Cycle (an FSL-developed numerical weather prediction model running operationally at NCEP)
RUC-2 Version 2 of the Rapid Update Cycle model (operational at NCEP)


SAO Surface Aviation Observation
SARSAT Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking System
SCAT Severe Clear-Air Turbulence Colliding with Air Traffic
SDAM Satellite Data Access and Management format
SDBE Shear-Directed Balloon Experiment
SDD Systems Development Division (FSL)
SDHS Satellite Data Handling System
SDM Scientific Data Management
SGI Silicon Graphics, Inc.
SIGMET Significant Meteorological Information
SIO Scripps Institution of Oceanography
SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol
SMS Scalable Modeling System (developed at FSL)
SOO/SAC Science and Operations Officer/Scientific Applications Computer
SOPAC Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center
SPC Storm Prediction Center
SREF Short-Range Ensemble Forecast project
SRS Scalable Runtime System (component of the Scalable Modeling System)
SST Scalable Spectral Tool (component of the Scalable Modeling System)
SWE snow-water equivalent


TCCR Technical Committee for Computing Resources
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TDL Techniques Development Laboratory (NWS headquarters)
TDWR Terminal Doppler Weather Radar
TIP TIROS Information Processor
TIROS Television and Infrared Operational Satellite
TKE Turbulent Kinetic Energy
T-LAPS Terminal LAPS
TOVS TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder
TSC Technical Steering Committee (FSL)


UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
UEDS Unidata Experimental Data Service (under UCAR)
UNAVCO University NAVSTAR [not an acronym] Consortium (UCAR Office of Programs)
Unix or UNIX (not an acronym) A computer operating system
UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply
URL Universal Resource Locater
USACE United States Army Corps of Engineers
USCG United States Coast Guard
UTC Coordinated Universal Time


VAD Velocity Azimuth Display
VAFB Vandenberg Air Force Base (in California)
VAS VISSR Atmospheric Sounder
VHF very high frequency
VIL Vertically Integrated Liquid
VISSR Visible and Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer
VMS Virtual Memory Systems
VNTSC Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (FAA)
VPN virtual private network
VRRP virtual resource reservation protocol


WFO Weather Forecast Office
WFO-Advanced The core software of AWIPS (developed at FSL)
WIAP Water in all phases project
WINS Weather Information and Nowcasting System
WMO World Meteorological Organization
WPM Well-Posed Model (developed at FSL)
WRF Weather Research and Forecast Model
WSO Weather Service Office
WSR-88D Weather Surveillance Radar
WSR99 NOAA's 1999 Winter Storm Reconnaissance program
WVIOP water vapor intensive observing period


ZTD Zenith Tropospheric Signal Delay

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