The products, agencies, programs, and models referenced in this Web site encompass a potentially overwhelming number of specialized terms and acronyms. The following summary of acronyms attempts to remove some of the confusion and act as a handy reference. Where possible, acronym definitions include links to the authoritative Web sites for those agencies, programs, and products. A separate source of terms and phrases may be found here.
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ACIS
Applied Climate Information System, datasets of
historical and near-real-time climate data from a variety of
weather and climate stations
ASOS
Automated Surface Observing System, a multi-agency
program that serves as the primary surface weather observing system
in the U.S.
CEFA
Program for Climate,
Ecosystem, and Fire Applications, a program at the
Desert Research
Institute (DRI)
CEMP
Community Environmental
Monitoring Program, a network of monitoring stations in
communities surrounding and downwind of the Nevada National Security
Site (NNSS), the Department of Energy's test site for radiological
materials.
CoCoRaHS
Community
Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, a volunteer,
community-based network for measurements of local precipitation.
CONUS
CONtiguous United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii
Coop Stations
The National Weather Service's
Cooperative
Observer Program, a climate observing network based on measurements
collected by more than 8,700 volunteers across the U.S.
DRI
Desert Research
Institute, a non-profit environmental research institute in
Reno, Nevada
ENSO
El
Niño Southern Oscillation
GEOS
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
system
LCDs
Local Climate Data summaries
NCAR
National Center for
Atmospheric Research
NCDC
National Climatic Data Center, now merged with two other public
data archives into National Centers for Environmental Information
(NCEI)
NCEI
National Centers
for Environmental Information, which hosts and provides public
access to environmental data archives, including atmospheric,
coastal, oceanic, and geophysical data; NCEI is part of
NOAA and
represents the merger of three previously separate NOAA data centers:
the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the National Geophysical
Data Center (NGDC), and the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC)
NCEP
National Centers
for Environmental Prediction
NICE Net
Nevada Integrated Climate and
Evapotranspiration Network
NIFC
National
Interagency Fire Center
NOAA
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, part of the U.S. Department of
Commerce.
NRCS
Natural
Resources Conservation Service
PDSI
Palmer Drought Severity Index
PRISM
Parameter elevation Regression on Independent Slopes
Model, a set of high-resolution gridded temperature,
precipitation, and dewpoint data
RAWS
Remote Automatic
Weather Stations
RAP
Rapid
Refresh, a continental assimilation/modeling system covering
North American which is updated hourly.
RCC
Regional Climate
Centers
RISA
Regional Integrated Science and Assessments
SCENIC
Southwest
Climate and ENvironmental Information Collaborative
SCOs
Western
State Climate Offices
SNOTEL
SNOwpack TELemetry, an automated system to
collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United
States
SOD
Summary of the Day
SOI
Southern Oscillation Index, an indication of the
development and intensity of El Niño and La Niña events
in the Pacific Ocean.
SPI
Standardized
Precipitation Index
UC NRS
University of
California Natural Reserve System climate monitoring network.
UTC
Coordinated Universal Time, essentially the same as Greenwich Mean
Time (GMT)
Washoe ET
Washoe County (Nevada)
Evapotranspiration Project
WestMap
Western
Climate Mapping initiative
WRCC
Western Regional
Climate Center, one of six Regional Climate
Centers in the United States funded by the
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in turn part of the U.S.
Department of Commerce; WRCC is colocated with
Desert Research
Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada
WWDT
West Wide
Drought Tracker