| Acronym |
Full name |
Comments |
| N/A or NA |
not applicable |
| N-AWIPS |
National Centers Advanced Weather Interactive Processing
Systems
| A version of GEMPAK developed by NMC |
| N-ROSS |
Naval Remote Ocean Sensing System |
| N-ROSS |
Naval Research Oceanographic Satellite System
| cancelled |
| N-SCAT |
NASA scatterometer |
| NAC |
NCAR Administrators Committee |
2nd in command of all divisions |
| NACCAM |
National Coordinating Committee on Aviation Meteorology
| Federal Coordinating Group/Meteorology, USWB |
| NACOA |
National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere
|
NOAA |
| NADO |
New Airport Development Office
| or Organization |
| NAE |
National Aeronautical Establishment
| Canada |
| NAE |
National Academy of Engineering
| USA |
| NAFAX |
Analog facsimile map
| A standard circuit of weather information produced
by the NWS |
| NAFTA |
North American Free Trade Agreement |
| NAG |
Numerical Algorithms Group Inc. |
| NAIC |
National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center |
NSF, Cornell University |
| NAILS |
NCAR Airborne Infrared Lidar System |
| NAO |
North American Oscillation |
| NAO |
North Atlantic Oscillation |
| NAO |
North Atlantic Ocean |
| NAOPS |
North Atlantic Ocean Prediction Systems |
INO |
| NAOS |
North American Observing System
| NOAA |
| NAPAP |
National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program
|
| NAPP |
National Aerial Photography Program |
| NAR |
nonadvocacy review |
| NARA |
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
|
| NARE |
North Atlantic Regional Experiment |
| NAS |
National Academy of Sciences |
| NAS |
National Airspace System
| FAA |
| NAS |
Naval Air Station |
| NASA |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| NASAO |
National Association of State Aeronautics and Organizations
|
| NASCAS |
NAS Committee on Atmospheric Sciences |
| NASCO |
NAS Committee on Oceanography |
| NASCOM |
NASA Communications Network |
| NASCOM II |
upgraded version of NASA Communications Network
|
| NASDA |
National Space Development Agency |
Japan |
| NASN |
National Air Surveillance Network |
| NASN |
NASN cascade impacter in aerosol studies |
| NASW |
National Association of Science Writers |
| NAT |
Nitric Acid Trihydrate |
| NATCA |
National Air Traffic Control Administration |
| NATO |
North Atlantic Treaty Organization |
| NATS |
NCAR Aircraft (or Airborne) Telemetry System |
| NAUG |
NASCOM Augmentation
| NASCOM II |
| Navaid |
Navigation aid
| loran, omega, or GPS |
| NAVSTAR |
NAVigation Signal Timing and Ranging System |
| NAWAU |
National Aviation Weather Advisory Unit |
| N-AWIPS |
National Centers Advanced Weather Interactive Processing
Systems
| A version of GEMPAK developed by NMC |
| NAWPG |
National Aviation Weather Products Generator |
| NBDRC |
New Building Design Review Committee |
| NBS |
National Bureau of Standards |
name changed to NIST, 8-23-88, U.S. Department
of Commerce, Boulder, Colorado |
| NCAB |
Network Coordination and Advisory Board |
| NCAR |
National Center for Atmospheric Research |
Boulder, Colorado, formally began in 1960 |
| NCAR Graphics |
| A computer graphics package developed by NCAR and
widely distributed throughout the scientific community |
| NCAR/UCAR |
National Center for Atmospheric Research
| which is managed by UCAR |
| NCC |
National Climate Center |
NOAA |
| NCDC |
National Climatic Data Center
| NOAA |
| NCDS |
NASA Climate Data System |
| NCEP |
National Centers for Environmental Prediction
| previously the National Meteorological Center,
a NOAA facility. The source of most of the model output data that appears
in GRIB form on the HDS data stream |
| NCF |
Network Control Facility
| An NWS operation |
| NCGIA |
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis |
| NCHPC |
National Consortium for High Performance Computing
|
| NCIS |
Nadir Climate Interferometer Spectrometer |
| NCMC |
Non-Classical Mesoscale Circulations |
Forced by Differential Surface Heating-Observational
Evaluations |
| NCMRWF |
India's National Centre for Medium Range Weather
Forecasting |
| NCOM |
NCAR CSM Ocean Model |
| NCP |
Network Control Program |
| NCPO |
National Climate Project Office |
NOAA |
| NCRP |
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement
|
established 3/5/65 |
| NCSA |
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, developed
such widely used Internet programs as Telnet and Mosaic |
| NCSNET |
NASCOM custom subnetwork |
| NCTM |
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics |
| ND |
near-dedicated |
| NDARB |
North Dakota Atmospheric Resources Board |
| NDBC |
National (or NOAA) Data Buoy Center |
MTF, GARP |
| NDC |
National Data Center |
| NDSC |
Network for Detection of Stratospheric Change
| a global network at http://www.ndsc.ncep.noaa.gov
|
| NDT |
non-destructive testing |
ASTM |
| NDTE |
North Dakota Tracer Experiment |
| NDTP |
North Dakota Thunderstorm Project |
| NDVI |
normalized difference vegetation index
| spectral index |
| NDVI |
Greeness index from satellites |
| NEAQS |
New England Air Quality Study |
| NEC |
Norman (Oklahoma) Evaluation Committees |
| NEC |
Nippon machines |
| NECHE |
Northeast Colorado Hail Experiment |
Predecessor of NHRE |
| NEDRES |
National Environmental Data Referral System |
| NEEDS |
| Digital Library for Engineering Education (http://www.needs.org)
|
| NEHRP |
National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program |
| NEIC |
National Earthquake Information Center |
NOAA |
| NEM |
NWP Explicit Microphysics
| model developed at FSL, NOAA |
| NEMS |
Nimbus E microwave spectrometer |
GARP |
| NENA |
NOAA's Northeast-North Atlantic 2004 |
| NEONS |
Navy Environmental Operational Nowcast System |
| NEPA |
National Environmental Policy Act |
| NEPH |
nephelometer |
| NEPRF |
Naval Environmental Prediction Research Facility
|
Monterey, California, now Atmospheric Science Directorate
of NOARL |
| NERC |
National Environment Research Council |
| NESC |
National Environmental Satellite Center
| Suitland, Maryland |
| NESC |
National Energy Software Corporation |
| NESDD |
NOAA Earth Science Data Directory |
| NESDIS |
National Earth Satellite Data and Information System
|
| NESDIS |
National Environmental Satellite Data and Information
Service
| A program of NOAA |
| NESS |
National Earth Satellite Service |
NOAA |
| NET |
noise-equivalent temperature |
| netCDF |
network Common Data Form |
An interface for scientific data access and a library
that provides an implementation of the interface. The netCDF library also
defines a machine-independent format for representing scientific data. Together,
the interface, library, and format support the creation, access, and sharing
of scientific data. The netCDF software was developed by Unidata |
| NetNorth |
Wide Area Network serving the BITNET branch in
Canada
|
| NETS |
Network Engineering and Telecommunications Section
| NCAR, SCD |
| Netscape |
| A World-Wide Web browser from Netscape Communications
Corporation. Netscape evolved from NCSA Mosaic (with which it shares at
least one author) and runs on the X Window System under various versions
of Unix, on Microsoft Windows and on the Apple Macintosh |
| NEWS |
National Extreme Weather Systems |
| NEWS |
NOAA Earth Watch Service |
| NeWS |
Network extensible Windows System |
| NEXAIR |
next generation upper air system |
NWS |
| NEXRAD |
Next Generation Weather Radar
| A NOAA radar system of WSR-88D radars and associated
processing equipment. NEXRAD data is made available at discounted prices
to the IDD through a contract with WSI |
| NEXRAD |
Next Radar |
| NEXUS |
Next Upper Air Sounder (system) |
| NEXUS |
next-generation upper-air sounding system |
| NEXUS |
navaid-based upper- air sounding system |
| NFCR |
Narrow cold-frontal rainbands |
| NFS |
Network File System
| A communications protocol based on IP for file
sharing among dissimilar computers on a LAN; allows cooperating computers
to access each other's file systems as if they were local. NFS was originally
developed by Sun, but is now available on most major operating systems |
| NGDC |
National Geophysical Data Center |
| NGI |
Next Generation Internet |
| NGM |
Nested Grid Model |
developed in the 1980s, a forecasting model run
by the NMC |
| NGO |
Non-Government Organizations |
| NGS |
National Geodetic Survey |
| NGT |
NASA ground terminal |
| NGTG |
NCAR GARP Task Group |
| NH |
Northern Hemisphere |
| NHAP |
national high altitude photography |
| NHC |
National Hurricane Center |
| NHRE |
National Hail Research Experiment
| May 1990, formerly NECHE |
| NHRL |
National Hurricane Research Laboratory |
NOAA, Miami, Florida |
| NHSRP |
National Hail Suppression Research Program |
Preliminary name of NHRE |
| NIAR |
National Institute for Atmospheric Research
| original name of NCAR |
| NIC |
Network Interface Card |
| NICI |
Negative Ion Chemical Ionization
| GC/MS |
| NIDS |
NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service
| A NOAA service |
| NIDS |
NEXRAD Information and Data System |
| NIES |
National Institute of Environmental Science
| Japan |
| NIGEC |
National Institute for Global Environmental Change
|
| NIH |
National Institute of Health |
| NILU |
Norwegian Institute for Air Research |
| NIMBUS |
Networked Information Management client-Based User
Service
| developed at FSL, NOAA |
| NIMROD |
Northern Illinois Meteorological Research on Downbursts
|
University of Chicago |
| NIP |
National and International Program |
NSF |
| NIPR |
National Institute for Polar Research
| Japan |
| NIR |
| near IR |
| NIRNS |
National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science
|
Harwell, England |
| NIST |
National Institute of Standards and Technology
|
new name of NBS, 8-23-88 |
| NIU |
Network Interface Unit |
| Nixie tubes |
thermionic display
| electronic calculator |
| NLDN |
National Lightning Detection Network
| Also, a data feed provided by SUNY Albany through
a cooperative agreement with Global Atmospherics, Inc. |
| NLDS |
National Lightning Detection System |
| NLDS |
National Lightning Detection System |
| NLN |
NCAR Local Network
| now called MASnet |
| NLTE |
non local thermodynamic equilibrium
| more generally given as non-LTE |
| NM |
network management |
| NMC |
National Meteorological Center
| A NOAA facility, now called National Centers for
Environmental Prediction, NCEP |
| NMCC |
NASCOM Management Control Center |
| NMD |
NASA Master Directory |
| NMF |
normal mode functions |
| NMFS |
National Marine Fisheries Service |
NOAA |
| NMHC |
Non-Methane Hydrocarbons |
| NMIMT |
New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology |
| NMOS |
Network and Mission Operations Support
| contract |
| NNF |
Non-NSF Funded |
| NNMI |
nonlinear normal mode initialization software |
| NNSC |
NSF Net Service Center |
| NNT |
Nearest Neighbor Tool |
| NOAA |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
|
U.S. Department of Commerce, replaced ESSA |
| NOAAnet |
NOAA network |
| NOAAport |
| A broadcast communication system planned by NOAA
to link AWIPS sites; its function is to provide real-time environmental
data to NOAA and other users |
| NOAASIS |
NOAA Satellite Information System |
| NOAH |
comprised of the National Centers for Environmental
Protection, Oregon State University, the Air Force, and the Hydrologic Research
Lab of the National Weather Service |
| NOAO |
National Optical Astronomy Observatories |
| NOARL |
Naval Oceanographic and Atmospheric Research Laboratory
| INO, the merging of NORDA with NEPRF |
| NOC |
Naval Oceanographic Command |
| NOC |
Network Operations Center |
| NODC |
National Oceanographic Data Center |
| NODS |
NASA Ocean Data System |
| NOGAPS |
U.S. Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction
System |
| NOIC |
National Oceanographic Instrumentation Center |
NOAA |
| NOHRSC |
National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing
Center |
| NOMAD |
Navy Oceanographic Meteorological Device |
Unmanned weather station (SNAP-7D nuclear generator
power) that provides 3 hourly reports; and every hour in severe weather
|
| NOMHICE |
Nonmethane Hydrocarbon Intercomparison Experiment
|
| NOMP |
Navy Ocean Modeling and Prediction Program |
| NOMSS |
National Operational Meteorological Satellite System
|
| NOPS |
Nimbus Observations Processing System |
NASA |
| NORDA |
Naval Ocean Research & Development Activity |
St. Louis, Missouri, now Ocean Acoustics and Ocean
Science Directorates of NOARL |
| NORPAX |
North Pacific Experiment |
| NOS |
National Ocean Service |
NOAA, replaced Coast and Geodetic Survey |
| NOSC |
Naval Ocean Systems Center |
| NOSIE |
NODC Ocean Science Information Exchange |
| NOSS |
National Ocean Satellite System |
| NOVAM |
Navy Oceanographic Vertical Aerosol Model |
| NOWES |
Northern Wetlands Study |
| NOWrad |
National Operational Weather radar
| a tradename of WSI Corporation |
| NOWrad-6 |
a new product derived from WSI Corporation national
radar reflectivity data |
| NOZE |
National Ozone Expedition |
| NPAS |
Network Planning and Analysis System |
| NPC |
National Processing Centers |
GARP |
| NPG |
Naval Proving Ground |
| NPGATE |
NCAR PROFS gateway computer |
| NPI |
NEXRAD Product Interface |
| NPI |
North Pacific Index |
| NPN |
NOAA Profiler Network
| previously known as the Wind Profiler Demonstration
Project |
| NPOESS |
National Polar Orbiter Environmental Satellite
System |
| NPOP |
NASA Polar Orbiting Platform |
| NPP |
Net Primary Productivity |
| NPRM |
Notice for Proposed Rule Making |
| NPS |
Numerical Product Service
| a NWS data stream |
| NPSNET |
NASCOM packet switched subnetwork |
| NQS |
Network Queue System |
| NRC |
National Research Council |
| NRCC |
National Research Council of Canada |
| NRDC |
National Research Development Corporation |
England |
| NRE |
Notice of Revised Estimate |
| NREL |
National Resource Ecology Laboratory |
| NREL |
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
| formerly SERI |
| NREN |
National Research and Education Network |
| NRL |
Naval Research Laboratory |
| NRLSI |
National Reference Library of Science and Invention
|
British |
| NRN |
National Research Network |
| NROSS |
Naval Remote Ocean Sensing System |
| NRSC |
National Remote Sensing Centre |
| ns |
nanoseconds |
| NSB |
National Science Board |
Board of Directors for NSF |
| NSBF |
National Scientific Balloon Facility |
Palestine, Texas formerly NCAR's SBF |
| NSC |
Network Systems Corporation |
| NSCAT |
NASA Scatterometer |
| NSDA |
National Space Development Agency
| Japan |
| NSDL |
National Science Digital Library |
| NSF |
National Science Foundation |
| NSFF |
NSF Funded |
| NSFnet |
National Science Foundation Network |
A national computer network established by NSF
and managed by the University of Michigan and MERIT, Inc. NSFnet is part
of Internet. |
| NSFNF |
Non-NSF non-funded |
| NSG |
Natural Systems Group |
NCAR |
| NSI |
NASA Science Internet |
| NSIDC |
National Snow and Ice Data Center |
| NSN |
NASA Science Network |
| NSO |
National Solar Observatory
| New Mexico |
| NSPI |
National Society for Programmed Instruction |
| NSRC |
National Systems and Research Company |
| NSRDS |
National Standard Reference Data System |
NBS |
| NSS |
Nodal Switching Subsystem |
| NSSDC |
National Space Science Data Center |
NASA Goddard, if an A, B, C, is on the end of the
acronym, it designates a particular computer |
| NSSFC |
National Severe Storms Forecast Center |
Kansas City |
| NSSL |
National Severe Storms Laboratory |
NOAA, Norman, Oklahoma |
| NSSP |
National Severe Storms Project |
| NSTA |
National Science Teachers Association |
| NSTP |
National Solar Terrestrial Program |
| NSTS |
National Space Transportation System |
| NSWP |
National Space Weather Program |
| nT |
The nanotesler (nT)
| a measure of geomagnetic field strength |
| NTCC |
Nimbus Technical Control Center |
Twerle |
| NTIS |
National Technical Information Service |
USDC, Springfield, Virginia 22151, Government's
central clearing house for sale of R&D and other government funded reports
|
| NTISS |
national telecommunications and information systems
security |
policy |
| NTN |
National Telecommunications Network |
| NTP |
Network Time Protocol |
| NTRANS |
metacode translator |
| NTS |
Nevada Test Site |
| NTSB |
National Transportation Safety Board |
| NTSC |
National Television System Committee |
| NTTF |
NASA Test and Training Facility |
| NURE |
National Uranium Resource Evaluation |
| NUWIG |
National Uranium Resource Evaluation |
| NVAP |
NASA water vapor project |
| NWP |
Numerical Weather Prediction |
| NWRC |
National Weather Records Center |
Asheville, North Carolina |
| NWS |
National Weather Service
| NOAA |
| NWS |
Naval Weather Service |
| NWSC |
National Weather Satellite Center |
| NWSFO |
National Weather Service Forecast Office |
| NWSOP |
National Winter Storms Operations Plan |
| NWSTC |
National Weather Service Telecommunications |
| NWSTG |
National Weather Service Telecommunications Gateway
|
| NYSERNET |
New York State Educational and Research Network
| a regional NSFNET network |
