This is an archived site. This site is no longer being maintained or reviewed for broken links.

What does that mean?

Oceanography, like most science disciplines throws around acronyms all the time. Here, we are beginning a list of those that we are likely to use on this website. If you find some word or acronym on the website that is undefined or you just don't know what it means, let us know and will include it here.

ACRONYMS:
CLIVAR: Climate Variability and Predictability

JGOFS: Joint Global Ocean Flux Study

OACES: Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study

WCRP: World Climate Research Program

WOCE: World Ocean Circulation Experiment

DEFINITIONS:

Anthropogenic: produced or caused by humans

Decade: 10 years

Hydrography: scientific observation, description and analysis of physical aspects of the ocean, often used to refer specifically to measurements of temperature and salinity or to the mapping of bodies of water

Space-scale: a distance, a distance over which something occurs

Spatial-scale: see space-scale

Temporal-scale: see time-scale

Time-scale: a length of time, period of time over which something occurs

El-Nino: a pattern of warming temperatures in the equatorial Pacific that occurs every 6 to 10 years and has global consequences. See this website.

Last updated: November 12, 2009