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Climate Glossary

(Also available in alphabetical order.)
 

WUWT

WattsUpWithThat (the #1 science blog site on the Web, created by climatologist Anthony Watts)

Watts, Anthony

A leading "skeptical" climatologist, owner of the WUWT blog, and originator of the SurfaceStations.org project

RC

RealClimate (the leading Climate Movement activist blog, with about 1/10 the readership of WUWT)

GW

Global Warming (a/k/a Climate Change)

AGW

Anthropogenic Global Warming (GW caused by people)

CAGW

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (a/k/a the True Faith of the Climate Movement activists)

IPCC

United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the leading Climate Movement institution)

TAR

IPCC Third Assessment Report (2001)

AR4

IPCC 4th Assessment Report (2007)

AR5

IPCC 5th Assessment Report (due 2013)

APOD

Astronomy Picture Of the Day (a/k/a APOTD)

NPR

Notoriously-leftist Public Radio

GISS

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in New York City (oddly enough, handlers of U.S. surface temperature records)

JPL

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, in Pasadena, CA

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NCDC

NOAA National Climatic Data Center

USHCN

NCDC United States Historical Climatology Network - keepers of U.S. surface station climate records

SurfaceStations.org

A volunteer project led by climatologist Anthony Watts to analyze, station-by-station, the entire USHCN station network

PSMSL

Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level

Hansen, James

A controversial elder leader of the Climate Movement, retired April 3, 2013 as director of the NYC office of NASA GISS

ENSO

El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation (a semi-oscillatory pattern to Southern and equatorial Pacific ocean temperatures, with a period of about 3-5 years, and global weather effects)

PDO

Pacific Decadal Oscillation (a longer-duration oscillatory pattern to Pacific weather, especially in the Northern Pacific, with a period of about 15-30 years)

AMO

Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (a very long-duration oscillatory pattern to North Atlantic weather, with an estimated period of about 70 years)

TOBS

Time of OBServation (variations of which can bias temperature measurements, which is the excuse for some of the striking "adjustments" to old temperature records, which made the past colder and the present warmer, bolstering the apparent case for GW)

MSL

Mean Sea-Level

LMSL

Local Mean Sea-Level (MSL measured at a specific place), also sometimes called RSL (Relative Sea-Level)

GMSL

Global Mean Sea-Level (any of many varieties of average MSL)

SLR

Sea-Level Rise

Eustatic SLR

Global Sea-Level Rise = GMSL Rise

Isostatic

"due to changes in loading of the crust of the earth" (especially due to melting ice circa 10,000 years ago)

Subsidence

Sinking of the land, e.g., due to extraction of groundwater, oil, or natural gas

WAG

Wild-Ass Guess; see also "proxy"

PGR

Post-Glacial Rebound, isostatic movement of the earth's crust due to the last major deglaciation (circa 10,000 years ago); it causes falling sea-levels in Scandinavia, around Hudson Bay, & elsewhere

GIA

Glacial Isostatic Adjustment, a (rough!) calculated adjustment to SLR to account for PGR

Peltier, Wm Richard

The University of Toronto professor who calculates GIA from computer models

VM2

Peltier's most commonly-used model-derived GIA data set; also, the "earth model" used for it

VM4

Peltier's alternative model-derived GIA data set; also, the "earth model" used for it

ICE-5G

The "ice model" used by Peltier to calculate his GIA data sets

Tide-station

A device for measuring coastal sea-level; also called a tide-gauge

GLOSS

Global Sea-Level Observing System (a set of hundreds of tide-stations, some of which have been operating for over 200 years)

Daly, John

A leading Australian climate skeptic, now deceased

Jones, Phil

An English leader of the Climate Movement, who infamously called the untimely death of John Daly "cheering news"

Climategate

A "data dump" by a still-anonymous whistle-blower, of climate-related emails, documents & computer code, which showed that leading Climate Movement scientists had been manipulating & withholding data, hiding evidence, and blackballing skeptics, to promote CAGW. (Phil Jones' email about the "cheering news" of John Daly's death was one of those released.)

UEA CRU

University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, source of the Climategate files

RWP

Roman Warm Period, circa 250 B.C. to 400 A.D., when temperatures were probably about as warm as they are now

MWP

Medievial Warm Period (a/k/a Medieval Climate Optimum), circa 900 to 1300 A.D., when temperatures were probably about as warm as they are now

LIA

Little Ice Age, circa 1400-1800 A.D., when temperatures were much colder than they are now

Paleoclimate

Climate data from long ago, before there were good measurements

Proxies

Indirect methods of attempting to infer paleoclimate data from other things; see also "WAG"

Mann, Michael

A leading U.S. Climate Movement scientist, who famously created a (since-discredited) "hockey-stick" shaped graph of paleo-temperature data from tree-ring proxies, which attempted to erase the MWP & LIA from history

Muller, Richard

A leading U.S. Climate Movement scientist, who was critical of Michael Mann after the Climategate revelations

M&M

Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, Canadian researchers who famously discredited Michael Mann's "hockey stick" with their 2003 paper

Denier

What Climate Movement true believers call those who disagree with them (a reference to Holocaust deniers)

SST

Sea Surface Temperature

IR

Infrared light

CO2

Carbon dioxide, a colorless, odorless trace gas, the raw material for plant growth, the stuff you exhale

Carbon pollution

What Climate Movement activists call producing carbon dioxide (by burning things, exhaling, etc.)

CH4

Methane, the main component of natural gas and flatulence. When burned, it oxidizes into CO2 and water. If released into the atmosphere, it oxidizes more slowly, with a half-life of about six years.

GHG

GreenHouse Gas: any trace gas (such as CO2 or CH4) which could help warm the Earth's surface by blocking IR emissions into space. (Note: the term is a misnomer, because that's not how greenhouses work.)