Adaptive Observations - Weather Observations obtained selectively through an intelligent heirarchical process

Adaptive Targeting - The method or act of generating adaptive observations

AIRS - Atmospheric Infrared Sounder

AOML - Atlantic Oceanographic Meteorological Laboratory (located in Miami, FL)

DAS - Data Assimilation System

DWL - Doppler Wind Lidar

Free Forecast - numerical model integration executed outside of the DAS

GMAO - Global Modeling and Assimilation Office

GPS - Global Positioning System

Lidar - Light Detection and Ranging

LOS - Line-of-sight. Refers to the component of wind measured by lidar along the laser beam

Nature run - long model integration used as a proxy atmosphere for OSSE's

NCCS - NASA Center for Computational Sciences

OSSE - Observing System Simulation Experiment

OSE - Observing System Experiment

Quikscat - NASA satellite carrying the SeaWinds instrument

Scatterometer - Microwave radar used to measure the scattering effect of small waves on the ocean surface to infer surface atmospheric wind speed and direction

SeaWinds - NASA active microwave scatterometer onboard Quikscat

SIVO - Software Integration and Visualization Office

SRT - Sounder Research Team

SSM/I - Special Sensor Microwave Imager. Passive microwave imagers flying onboard DMSP satellite that measure wind speed but not wind direction

SWA - Simpson Weather Associates

Windsat - NASA passive microwave scatterometer