Global Warming Glossary

Introduction

This informal and brief glossary describes terms and abbreviations you'll hear in class and see in class readings. For more information see this Glossary of Climate Change Terms by the EPA.

Glossary

• aerosol: Small particles (liquid or solid) in the air. (The EPA Glossary has a nice concise and complete definition.)
• albedo: Reflectivity of a surface. Ice has high albedo because it reflects most of the sunlight that falls on it.
• anthropogenic: Made by humans.
• anomalies: Departures from some average or other fixed datum.
• BP: Before present. Here "present" is defined as a time in the last few decades.
• CH₄: Methane, a greenhouse gas.
• CO₂: Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide has both natural sources (e.g. respiration) and anthropogenic sources (e.g. burning of fossil fuels).
• ENSO: El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
• FAR: Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC.
• GCM: General circulation model. These models simulate the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere and/or ocean. Because today many GCMs are also global climate models, which include the influence of the land and sea-ice, sometimes you will hear people say "GCM" means "global climate model."
• GHG: Greenhouse gases.
• Holocene: The geologic period corresponding to "modern" times, approximately the past 10,000 years.
• IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is the international organizational that periodically summarizes the state of the research regarding climate change. Working Group 1 focuses on the the science of climate change, while the other two Working Groups analyze possible effects and responses.
• ka: "Kiloannum" or 1000 years.
• Ky: "Kiloyear" or 1000 years.
• LOSU: Level of scientific understanding.
• NCAR: National Center for Atmospheric Research. Based in Boulder, CO, this NSF-sponsored center is one of the United States' premier climate and weather research organizations.
• NH: Northern hemisphere.
• NOAA: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce is responsible for weather and climate forecasts as well as atmospheric research. It is the parent organization of the National Weather Service.
• NSF: The National Science Foundation. This U.S. Government organization sponsors basic research in a variety of science disciplines.
• parameterization: Schemes that represent unresolved physical processes (such as clouds) in climate models.
• radiative forcing: "... measure of the influence that a factor has in altering the balance of incoming and outgoing energy in the Earth-atmosphere system..." (IPCC WG1 FAR SPM 2007, p. 2). Roughly, a positive radiative forcing will warm the surface while a negative radiative forcing will cool the surface. Values are relative to some baseline and are usually given in W/m².
• RF: Radiative forcing.
• SH: Southern hemisphere.
• SPM: Summary for Policymakers, from the IPCC Assessment Reports.
• SRES: IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios (2000).
• TAR: Third Assessment Report of the IPCC.
• WG1, WG2, WG3: Working Group 1, 2, and 3, respectively, of the IPCC.
• WMO: World Meteorological Organization. This international organization is an office of the U.N.