Information Resources
WMO Space Programme Glossary
The Glossary explains acronyms used on the WMO Space Programme Website. The fastest way is to start typing the keyword you are looking for, the table then filters the results.
For other acronyms please consult the WMO terminology database METEOTERM.
| Acronym | Definition | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| AAPP | AVHRR & ATOVS Pre-processing Package | Software developed by NWP SAF |
| AATSR | Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer | Instrument on Envisat |
| ABI | Advanced Baseline Imager | Instrument on GOES-R series |
| ABS | Advanced Baseline Sounder | |
| ACE | Atmospheric Climate Experiment | |
| ADEOS | ADvanced Earth Observing Satellite | JAXA satellite |
| ADM | Advanced Dissemination Methods | WMO, IGDDS |
| ADM-Aeolus | Atmospheric Dynamics Mission | ESA satellite |
| AHRPT | Advanced HRPT | Metop dissemination standard |
| AIRS | Advanced Infra-Red Sounder | Instrument on Aqua, NASA |
| ALOS | Advanced Land Observing Satellite | JAXA satellite |
| AM | Ante Meridian | Before noon |
| AMESD | African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development | PUMA follow-on |
| AMSR-E | Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer / EOS | JAXA instrument on Aqua (NASA) |
| AMSU | Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit | Instrument on NOAA/POES and Metop |
| AMV | Atmospheric Motion Vector | Level 3 product |
| AOPC | Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate | GCOS |
| APT | Automatic Picture Transmission | NOAA/POES,analog transmission |
| Aqua | NASA Earth Observation Satellite in p.m. orbit | NASA, EOS pm |
| ARGOS | Data collection and location system on NOAA/POES | CLS |
| ASAP | Automated Shipboard Aerological Programme | |
| ASCAT | Advanced Scatterometer | Instrument on Metop |
| ASMET | African Satellite Meteorology Education and Training | Computer Aided Learning |
| ASTER | Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer | Instrument on Terra |
| ATBD | Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document | GSICS |
| ATMS | Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder | Instrument on NPP and NPOESS |
| ATOVS | Advanced TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder | Instrument suite on NOAA/POES and Metop |
| ATS | Applications Technology Satellite | Demonstrator for GEO satellites before GOES |
| ATSR | Along Track Scanning Radiometer | Instrument on ERS |
| AVHRR | Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer | Instrument on NOAA/POES, Metop |
| AWI | Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research | Germany |
| AWIPS | Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System | NOAA, USA |
| BOM | Bureau of Meteorology (Australia) | Australia |
| BUFR | Binary Universal Form for data Representation | Codes and Format |
| CALIOP | Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization | CALIPSO satellite |
| CAST | Chinese Academy of Space Technology | Partner in CBERS development (China) |
| CBERS | China - Brazil Earth Resources Satellite | INPE (Brazil) and CAST (China) |
| CBS | Commission for Basic Systems | WMO |
| CCAR | Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (USA) | |
| CCD | Charged Couple Device | Type of camera flown on several meteorological satellites |
| CCRS | Canada Centre for Remote Sensing | |
| CEOS | Comittee on Earth Observation Satellites | www.ceos.org |
| CERES | Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System | Instrument on Aqua, Terra, NPOESS-1 |
| CFC | Chlorofluorocarbon | |
| CGMS | Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites | cgms.wmo.int |
| CHAMP | CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload for magnetic & gravity field measurement | DLR (Germany) and CNES (France) |
| CHRPT | China's High Resolution Picture Transmission | Specific HRPT implementation |
| CIMSS | Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies | University of Wisconsin, USA |
| CIRA | Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere | Colorado State University, USA |
| CLS | Collecte, Localisation Satellites | DCS operator (France) |
| CM | Consultative Meeting on High-level Policy on Satellite Matters | |
| CMA | China Meteorological Administration | China |
| CME | Coronal Mass Ejection | Space Weather |
| CMI | Climate Moisture Index | |
| CMIS | Conically Scanning Microwave Imager / Sounder | Planned instrument for NPOESS |
| CMS | Centre de Météorologie Spatiale (France) | Meteo-France |
| CNES | Centre Nationale d’Etudes Spatiales | French National Space Agency |
| CNSA | China National Space Administration | China |
| CoE | Centre of Excellence | Virtual Laboratory, Training |
| COMET | Cooperative programme for Operational Meteorology Education & Training | UCAR |
| CONAE | Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales | Argentina |
| COPUOS | United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space | UN-OOSA |
| COSMIC | Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate | UCAR |
| CPTEC | Centreo de Prévision del Tiempo y Estudios Climaticas | Brazil, INPE |
| CrIS | Cross track Infrared Sounder | Instrument on NPP and NPOESS |
| CZCS | Coastal Zone Colour Scanner | Ocean colour demonstrator on Nimbus-7 (NASA) |
| DBNet | Direct Broadcast Network for LEO Satellite Data | RARS follow-on |
| DCP | Data Collection Platform | See DCS |
| DCPC | Data Collection or Production Centre | WIS component, WMO |
| DCRS | Data Collection and Retransmission Service | See DCS |
| DCS | Data Collection System | |
| DLR | Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt | German Aerospace Centre |
| DMI | Danish Meteorological Institute | Denmark |
| DNMI | Norwegian Meteorological Institute | Norway |
| DMSP | Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (USA) | USA |
| DVB-S | Digital Video Broadcast by Satellite | Telecommunication standard |
| DWD | Deutscher Wetterdienst | German national meteorological service |
| DWSS | Defense Weather Satellite System | USA, DOD |
| EARS | EUMETSAT Advanced Retransmission Service | EUMETSAT, RARS |
| ECMWF | European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts | www.ecmwf.int |
| EC-PORS | Executive Council Panel of Experts on Polar Operations Research and Services | GCW |
| ECT | Equatorial Crossing Time | Local solar time of equator crossing (fixed for sun-synchronous orbits) |
| ECV | Essential Climate Variable | GCOS |
| ENSO | El Niño Southern Oscillation | |
| ENVISAT | Environmental Satellite | ESA satellite |
| EOS | Earth Observation Satellite | See: Aqua, Terra, Aura |
| EPS | EUMETSAT Polar System | See: Metop, EUMETSAT |
| ERB | Earth Radiation Budget | |
| ERS | European Remote-sensing Satellite | ESA satellite |
| ESA | European Space Agency | www.esa.int |
| ESRC | Environmental Satellite Resource Center | ESRC, COMET, UCAR, VL |
| ET-EGOS | Expert Team on the Evolution of the Global Observing system | CBS, WMO |
| ET-SAT | Expert Team on Satellite Systems | CBS, WMO |
| ET-SUP | Expert Team on Satellite Utilisation and Products | CBS, WMO |
| EUMETSAT | European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites | eumetsat.int |
| EUV | Extreme Ultra Violet | |
| fAPAR | Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation | Vegetation product |
| FMI | Finnish Meteorological Institute | Finland |
| FNMOC | Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center | US Navy |
| FOV | Field of View | |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol | |
| FY-1,3 | Feng Yun- 1,3 (Chinese polar orbiting meteorological satellite series) | CMA |
| FY-2,4 | Feng Yun-2, 4 (Chinese geostationary satellite series) | CMA |
| GAW | Global Atmospheric Watch | WMO, Atmospheric Chemistry |
| GCC | GSICS Coordination Centre | GSICS |
| GCOM | Global Change Observation Mission | JAXA |
| GCOS | Global Climate Observing System | WMO, UNESCO/IOC, UNEP, ICSU |
| GCW | Global Cryosphere Watch | |
| GDPS | Global Data processing System | WMO |
| GDSIDB | Global Digital Sea Ice Database, | WMO, IOC, JCOMM |
| GDWG | GSICS Data Management Working Group | GSICS |
| GEO | Geostationary orbit | |
| GEO | Group on Earth Observations | www.earthobservations.org |
| GEOSS | Global Earth Observation System of Systems | GEO |
| GERB | Geostationary Earth radiation Budget instrument | Instrument on MSG |
| GEWEX | Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment | WCRP |
| GFCS | Global Framework for Climate Services | |
| GHRSST | Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature | GODAE |
| GHz | Giga-Hertz | |
| GIFTS | Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer | NASA developed instrument |
| GIIPSY | Global Interagency IPY Polar Snapshot Year project | IPY |
| GISC | Global Information System Centre | WIS component, WMO |
| GLAS | Geoscience Laser Altimeter System | IceSat, NASA |
| GLI | Global Imager | JAXA |
| GLONASS | Global Navigation Satellite System (Russian) | Russian federation |
| GMES | Global Monitoring of Environment and Security | European Union and ESA |
| GMS | Geostationary Meteorological Satellites (Japan) | MTSAT, Japan |
| GNSS | Global Navigation Satellite System | GPS |
| GODAE | Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment | |
| GOES | Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (USA) | NOAA/NESDIS, USA |
| GOME | Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment | Instrument on ERS-2 |
| GOMOS | Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars | Instrument on Envisat |
| GOMS | Geostationary Operational Meteorological Satellite | Russian Federation |
| GOOS | Global Ocean Observation System | UNESCO/IOC, WMO, UNEP, ICSU |
| GOS | Global Observing System | A WWW component, WMO |
| GPCP | Global Precipitation Climatology Project | GEWEX, WCRP |
| GPM | Global Precipitation Measurement | NASA-JAXA programme |
| GPRC | GSICS Processing and Research Centre | GSICS |
| GPSOS | Global Positioning System Occultation Sensor | |
| GPS | Global Positioning System | |
| GPS/MET | Meteorological applications of GPS | |
| GRACE | Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment | NASA |
| GRAS | GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding | Metop, GPS/Met |
| GRB | GOES Re-Broadcast ( GOES-R dissemination system) | NOAA |
| GRWG | GSICS Research Working Group | GSICS |
| GSFC | Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) | NASA |
| GSICS | Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System | WMO - CGMS project |
| GTS | Global Telecommunications System | A WWW component, WMO |
| GTZ | Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (Germany) | Germany |
| GVAR | GOES Variable Format | NOAA |
| HDF | Hierarchical Data Format | Format |
| HEO | Highly Elliptical Orbit | e.g. Molniya orbit |
| HIRS | High resolution Infrared Sounder | Instrument on NOAA/POES, Metop |
| hPa | hecto-Pascal | Unit of atmospheric pressure otherwise known as millibar |
| HR | High resolution | |
| HRC | High Resolution Camera | Instrument on CBERS-2B |
| HRIT | High Rate Information Transmission (dissemination standard for GEO) | Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS |
| HRPT | High Resolution Picture Transmission (dissemination standard for LEO) | Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS |
| HSB | Humidity Sounder - Brazil | Instrument on Aqua |
| IASI | Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer | Instrument on Metop |
| ICSU | International Council for Science | |
| ICTSW | Inter-programme Coordination Team on Space Weather | WMO CBS, CAeM |
| IDCS | International Data Collection System | DCS |
| IGBP | International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme | |
| IGDDS | Integrated Global Data Dissemination Service | WMO, WIS |
| IGEOLab | International Geostationary Laboratory for demonstration missions | Cooperation concept |
| IGOS-P | Integrated Global Observing Strategy - Partnership | |
| IJPS | Initial Joint Polar System | NOAA, EUMETSAT |
| ILAS-II | Improved Limb Atmospheric Sounder | Instrument on ADEOS II |
| IMD | India Meteorological Department | India |
| IMOP | Instruments and Methods of Observation Programme | WMO |
| IMWM | Institute of Meteorology and Water Management | Poland |
| INM | Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (Spain) | Spain |
| INPE | National Institute for Space Research (Brazil) | Brazil |
| INSAT | Indian geostationary multi-function SATellite | India |
| IOC | Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission | UNESCO |
| IOCCG | International Ocean Colour Coordination Group |
CEOS |
| IP | Internet Protocol | Telecommunication protocol |
| IPD | International Polar Decade | |
| IPWG | International Precipitation Working Group | CGMS |
| IPY | International Polar Year | |
| IRAS | Infrared Atmospheric Sounder | Instrument on FY-3 series (China) |
| IRMSS | Infrared Multi-Spectral Scanner | Instrument on CBERS-2 |
| IRS | Indian Remote Sensing Satellite | ISRO, India |
| ISCCP | International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project | GEWEX, WCRP |
| ISES | International Space Environment Service | Space Weather |
| ISRO | Indian Space Research Organization | India |
| ISWI | International Space Weather Initiative | |
| ITCZ | Inter Tropical Convergence Zone | |
| ITSC | International TOVS Study Conference | ITWG, CGMS |
| ITWG | International (A)-TOVS Working Group | CGMS |
| IWWG | International Wind Working Group | CGMS |
| JASON | Ocean surface topography mission | NASA, CNES, NOAA, EUMETSAT |
| JAXA | Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency | Japan |
| JCSDA | Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation | USA |
| JMA | Japan Meteorological Agency | Japan |
| JCOMM | Joint Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology | WMO, UNESCO/IOC |
| JPL | Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) | NASA |
| JPSS | Joint Polar Satellite System | NOAA |
| KARI | Korea Aerospace Research Institute | Korea |
| KMA | Korea Meteorological Administration | Korea |
| KNMI | Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute | National meteorological service of the Netherlands |
| LAC | Local Area Coverage | NOAA/POES |
| LAI | Leaf Area Index | Vegetation parameter |
| LBR | Low Bit Rate | |
| LEO | Low Earth Orbit | |
| Lidar | LIght Detection And Ranging | |
| LIS | Lightning Imaging Sensor | TRMM, NASA |
| LRIT | Low Rate Information Transmission (dissemination standard for GEO) | Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS |
| LRPT | Low Resolution Picture Transmission (dissemination standard for LEO) | Direct broadcast standard agreed through CGMS |
| LST | Land Surface Temperature | Level 2 product |
| LST | Local Solar Time (usually Mean Local Solar Time) | Sun-Synchronous orbits |
| McIDAS | Man-computer Interactive Data Access System | UNIDATA, UCAR |
| MDD | Meteorological Data Distribution | Meteosat |
| Megha-Tropique | A joint CNES-ISRO mission | CNES, ISRO |
| MERIS | Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer | Instrument on Envisat |
| MERSI | Medium Resolution Spectral Imager | Instrument on FY-3, China |
| Meteosat | Meteorological Satellite | Series of European geostationary meteorological satellites (EUMETSAT) - see MSG, MTG |
| METOP | METeorological OPerational (polar) satellite of EUMETSAT | EUMETSAT |
| MHS | Microwave Humidity Sounder | Instrument on Metop, NOAA/POES |
| MIRAS | Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis | SMOS, ESA |
| MIS | Microwave Imager Sounder | Planned instrument on NPOESS |
| MISR | Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer | Instrument on Terra |
| MODIS | MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer | Instrument on Aqua and Terra |
| MOPITT | Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere | Instrument on Terra |
| MOS | Marine Observation Satellite | |
| MSG | Meteosat Second Generation | EUMETSAT |
| MSMR | Multichannel Scanning Microwave Radiometer | Oceansat-1, ISRO |
| MSU-SK | Multispectral Infrared Conical Scanning Radiometer | Resurs and Okean, Roscosmos |
| MTG | Meteosat Third Generation | EUMETSAT |
| MTSAT | Multi-purpose Transport Satellite | JMA, Japan |
| MTSAT-FO | Multi-purpose Transport Satellite Follow-On | JMA, Japan |
| MTVZA | Microwave Scanning Radiometer | Meteor 3M, Russian Federation |
| MWHS | Microwave Humidity Sounder | Instrument on FY-3 series, China |
| MWTS | Microwave Temperature Sounder | Instrument on FY-3 series, China |
| MWR | Microwave Radiometers | Instrument on Envisat |
| NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | USA |
| NASDA | National Space Development Agency (Japan) | Now: JAXA |
| NCAR | National Center for Atmospheric Research | USA |
| NCEP | National Center for Environmental Prediction | NOAA, USA |
| NCSA | National Center for Supercomputing Applications | HDF, University of Illinois |
| NDVI | Normalised Differential Vegetation Index | |
| NESDIS | National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service | NOAA, USA |
| NetCDF | Network Common Data Format | Format, UNIDATA, UCAR |
| NIR | Near InfraRed | |
| NIST | National Institute of Standards and Technology | GSICS Member, USA |
| NMHS | National Meteorological and Hydrological Services | |
| NOAA | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | USA |
| NOAAPORT | DVB-S dissemination system for AWIPS products | NOAA, USA |
| NPOESS | National Polar Operational Environmental Satellite System | USA |
| NPP | NPOESS Preparatory Project | USA |
| NRSC | National Remote Sensing Centre | China |
| NRT | Near-Real Time | |
| NSCATT | NASA wind Scatterometer | Instrument on ADEOS |
| NSMC | National Satellite Meteorology Centre | CMA, China |
| NWP | Numerical Weather Prediction | |
| Oceansat | Ocean monitoring Satellite | ISRO, India |
| OCI | Ocean Colour Imager | |
| OCM | Ocean Colour Monitor | Oceansat, ISRO |
| OCTS | Ocean Colour and Temperature Scanner | ADEOS, JAXA |
| OLR | Outgoing Long-wave radiation | |
| OMI | Ozone Mapping Instrument | Aura |
| OMPS | Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite | NPOESS |
| OPAG-IOS | Open Programme Area Group on Integrated Observing Systems | WMO, CBS |
| OSEI | Operational Significant Event Imagery team | NOAA/NESDIS |
| OSMI | Ocean Scanning Multispectral Imager | |
| OSSEs | Observing System Simulation Experiments | |
| PAN | Panchromatic sensor | |
| Planeta | "Planeta" Scientific and Research Centre on Space Hydrometeorology | Russian Federation |
| PM | Post Meridian | After noon |
| PMEL | Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory | NOAA |
| POES | Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite | NOAA satellite series |
| POLDER | Polarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectance | ADEOS |
| PSU | Practical Salinity Units | |
| PUMA | Project for Preparing the Use of Meteosat second generation in Africa | EUMETSAT |
| QuikSCAT | Ocean surface wind measurement mission with Seawinds instrument | NASA |
| Radarsat | Radar satellite | CSA (Canada) |
| RAOBs | RADiosonde OBServations | |
| RARS | Regional ATOVS Retransmission Services | IGDDS, EARS |
| RMTC | Regional Meteorological Training Centre | WMO |
| Roshydromet | Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring | Russian Federation |
| Roscosmos | Russian Federal Space Agency | Russian Federation |
| R&D | Research and Development | |
| RRR | Rolling Review of Requirements | WMO |
| RSSC-CM | Regional/Specialized Satellite Centre on Climate Monitoring . This initiative is now renamed "SCOPE-CM" | Renamed: SCOPE-CM |
| SAC-C | Scientific Applications Satellite-S | CONAE (Argentina) |
| SAF | Satellite Applications Facility | EUMETSAT (SAF web page) |
| SAR | Synthetic Aperture Radar | |
| SATAID | Satellite Animation and Interactive Diagnosis | JMA, Japan |
| SBUV | Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet (radiometer) | Instrument on NOAA/POES |
| SCIAMACHY | SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY | Instrument on Envisat |
| SCOPE-CM | Sustained and Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring | (former R/SSC-CM), ECV |
| Seasat | Sea Satellite | NASA, USA |
| SeaWIFS | Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor | Instrument on Orbview-2 (former SeaStar) satellite |
| Seawinds | Scatterometer for sea surface wind measurement | Instrument on QuikSCAT |
| SEVIRI | Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager | Instrument on MSG |
| SFCG | Space Frequency Coordination Group | www.sfcgonline.org |
| SIRS | Satellite Infrared Spectrometer | |
| SMI | Soil Moisture Index | |
| SMOS | Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite | Earth Explorer, ESA |
| SOG | Statement of Guidance | WMO, RRR |
| SSEC | Space Science Engineering Center | University of Wisconsin, Madison |
| SSM/I | Special Sensor Microwave/Imager | DMSP |
| SSS | Sea surface salinity | Level 2 product |
| SST | Sea Surface Temperature | Level 2 product |
| SWH | Significant Wave Height | Level 2 product |
| TDCF | Table Driven Code Form | Examples are BUFR and GRIB |
| TIROS | Television InfraRed Observation Satellite | NOAA former satellite series |
| TMI | TRMM Microwave Imager | Instrument on TRMM |
| TOA | Top of Atmosphere | |
| TOMS | Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer | |
| TOPEX-Poseidon | TOPographic EXPeriment – Poseidon ocean surface topography mission | NASA - CNES |
| TOVS | TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder | NOAA/POES |
| TRMM | Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission | NASA - JAXA |
| UARS | Upper Atmosphere research Satellite | NASA satellite |
| UCAR | University Corporation for Atmospheric Research | USA, www.ucar.edu |
| UKMO | United Kingdom Meteorological Office | Now: "Met Office, UK " |
| UNCCD | United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification | |
| UNESCO | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization | |
| UNFCCC | United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change | |
| UNIDATA | UCAR program Center for Earth Sciences data and tools | (Unidata website) , UCAR |
| UN-OOSA | United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs | |
| UTC | Universal Time Coordinated | |
| UTH | Upper Tropospheric Humidity | Level 2 product |
| UTWV | Upper Tropospheric Water Vapour | |
| UV | Ultraviolet | |
| VIIRS | Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite | Instrument on NPP and NPOESS |
| VIRR | Visible and Infrared Radiometer | Instrument on FY-3 series, China |
| VIRS | Visible Infrared Scanner | Instrument on TRMM |
| VIS | Visible channel | |
| VisitView | Software tool for distance learning | Virtual Laboratory |
| VISSR | Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer | Instrument on GMS, JMA, Japan |
| VLab | Virtual Laboratory | Training |
| VRL | Virtual Resources Library | Virtual Laboratory |
| WCRP | World Climate Research Programme | WMO, UNESCO/IOC, ICSU |
| WEFAX | Weather Facsimile | |
| WFI | Wide Field Imager | Instrument on CBERS |
| WIGOS | WMO Integrated Global Observation Systems | WMO, system of observing sytems |
| WIS | WMO Information System | A WWW component |
| WMO | World Meteorological Organization | |
| WMO SP | WMO Space Programme | WMO programme |
| WWW | World Weather Watch | WMO programme |
| W3C | World Wide Web Consortium | XML |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language | Format developed by W3C |
| ZAMG | Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics | Austria |