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APPENDIX 16 - GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS

ABCB Australian Building Codes Board

ABN Australian Business Number (Bureau of Meteorology: 92 637 533 532)

ACCC Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

ACMAD African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development

ADAM Australian Data Archive for Meteorology

ADF Australian Defence Force

ADFA Australian Defence Forces Academy

ADM Assistant Director (Management)

AFAC Australasian Fire Authorities Council

AGO Australian Greenhouse Office

AGSO Australian Geological Survey Organisation

AIFS Australian Integrated Forecast System

AIMS Australian Institute of Marine Science

AMDAR Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay

AMDISS Australian Meteorological Data and Information Service System

AMFS Australian Marine Forecasting System

AMIP Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project of WCRP

AMM Australian Meteorological Magazine

AMOS Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

AMS American Meteorological Society

AMSA Australian Maritime Safety Authority

ANAO Australian National Audit Office

ANCOLD Australian National Commission on Large Dams

ANTS A New Tax System

AOOS Australian Ocean Observing System

APESMA Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia

APN Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

ARA Airborne Research Australia

ARM Atmospheric Radiation Monitoring

ARMCANZ Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand

AROS Automated Regional Operations System

ARR Australian Rainfall and Runoff

ASAP Automated Shipboard Aerological Programme

ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations

ASL Average Staffing Level

ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode

ATOVS Advanced TOVS (NOAA15)

AusAID Australian Agency for International Development

Ausplume Victorian Environment Protection Agency's pollution dispersal software

Autosonde automatic weather balloon sounding facility

AWA Australian Workplace Agreements

AWRA2000 Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000

AWS automatic weather station

BAM-3 BMRC Atmospheric Model, new version

BAS Business Activity Statement

BMRC Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre

BMTC Bureau of Meteorology Training Centre

BPS Basic Product Set, the list of Bureau products available free of charge to the community through the mass media and on the Bureau's web site

CAL Computer Aided Learning

CAR CSIRO Atmospheric Research

CASA Civil Aviation Safety Authority

CBD Central Business District

CCF Central Computing Facility

CCl Commission for Climatology of WMO

CCNCO Commonwealth Competitive Neutrality Complaints Office

CCS Climate and Consultative Services Section of each Regional Office

CDMS Climate Database Management System, a project of WMO

CD-ROM Compact Disc - Read Only Memory

CDIRS Computerised Design IFD Rainfall System

CEI Chief Executive Instructions

CG BAPS Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station

CGCM Coupled General Circulation Model

CHy Commission for Hydrology of WMO

CIMO Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observations of WMO

Cli-Manage Conference held to draw attention to the Bureau's climate services and to assist in identifying new service requirements

CLIMARC CLIMate ARChives project

CLIMAT An encoded report of monthly means, totals and extremes from a surface land observing station

CLIVAR CLImate VARiability programme of the WCRP

CMA China Meteorological Administration

CMB Climate Monitoring Bulletin

CMR CSIRO Marine Research

CMSS Computer Message Switching System

COMCOVER The Commonwealth's Insurable Risk Managed Fund

COMET Cooperative Program for Meteorological Education and Training

COP4 Fourth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (Buenos Aires, 1998)

COP5 Fifth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (Bonn, 1999)

COP6 Sixth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (The Hague, 2000)

COSB Central Operations and Systems Branch

CPU Central Processing Unit

CRC Cooperative Research Centre

CRCCH CRC for Catchment Hydrology

CRCSHM CRC for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology

CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

CVAP Climate Variability in Agriculture Research and Development Program of LWRRDC

CYCA Cruising Yacht Club of Australia

DCP Data Collection Platform

DEET Department of Education, Employment and Training

DFAT Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Dial-it Weather information provided through 1196 telephone services

Difacs Digital Facsimile

DMSU Defence Meteorological Support Unit, located in Darwin

EA Environment Australia

ECMWF European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts

EER Environmental Emergency Response

EFB Electronic Field Book

El Niño Extensive warming of the central and eastern Pacific that leads to a major shift in weather patterns across the Pacific (in Australia, El Niño events are linked to an increased probability of dry conditions)

ENSO El Niño - Southern Oscillation

ENVIROMON data collection software for local agencies

EPA Environment Protection Authority

ERIN Environment Resources Information Network

FAR False Alarm Ratio

Farmweather Forecast and information service tailored for farmers and agribusiness, operated by SSU

FBT Fringe Benefits Tax

FCCC Framework Convention on Climate Change of the UN

FDP Forecast Demonstration Project of WWRP

FMA Financial Management and Accountability Act

FMS Fiji Meteorological Service

FMS Financial Management System

FRIEND Flow Regimes from International, Experimental and Network Data, a UNESCO-sponsored Asian Pacific Project

FSEP Forecast Streamlining and Enhancement Project

FWCC Flood Warning Consultative Committee

FWOC Fleet Weather and Oceanographic Centre of the RAN

FY Feng-Yun satellite series of China

GASP Global Assimilation and Prediction System

GAW Global Atmosphere Watch of WMO

GCOS Global Climate Observing System

GFLOPS billion floating-point operations per second

GIFTS Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer of USA

GIS Geographic Information System

GLOBE Global Learning Observations to Benefit the Environment

GMS Geostationary Meteorological Satellite series of Japan

GNP Gross National Product

GOOS Global Ocean Observing System

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GSAM Generalised Southeast Australia Method of PMP estimation

GSDM Generalised Short Duration Method of PMP estimation

GSN GCOS Surface Network

GSNMC GSN Monitoring Centre

GST Goods and Services Tax

GTS Global Telecommunications System of WMO

GTSM Generalised Tropical Storm Method of PMP estimation

GTSM-R GTSM Revision

GUAN GCOS Upper Air Network

HAS Hydrometeorological Advisory Service

HF High Frequency radio

HMS Hydrometeorological Service of Vietnam

HOMS Hydrological Operational Multipurpose System of WMO

HORACE software for on-screen interactive editing of analysis charts

HPCCC High Performance Computing and Communications Centre, jointly operated by the Bureau and CSIRO

HRM Human Resources Management

HWP Housing Working Party

HYSPLIT Bureau's long range transport and dispersion model

IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization

IEA International Energy Agency

IFD Intensity-Frequency-Duration design rainfall information

IGOSS Integrated Global Ocean Services System

IHP International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO

IMO International Meteorological Organization

INTERFET International Force - East Timor

IOC Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

IOCI Indian Ocean Climate Initiative

IP Intellectual Property

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of WMO and UNEP

IRIMO Islamic Republic of Iran Meteorological Organization

IT Information Technology

JAFOOS Joint Australian Facility for Ocean Observing Systems

JCOMM Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission on Oceanographic and Marine Meteorology

JMA Japan Meteorological Agency

KMA Korea Meteorological Administration

La Niña El Niño's opposite phase (in Australia, La Niña events are linked to an increased probability of wet conditions)

LAPS Limited Area Prediction System

LLWAS Low Level Windshear Alerting System

LMD Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique (in France)

LWRRDC Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation

MARS Meteorological Archive and Retrieval System

MCSS Marine Climatological Summaries Scheme

MEP Management Education Program

MESO_LAPS Fine-mesh (mesoscale) versions of LAPS

Metadata Data about data

Meteogram A graph of selected weather variables derived directly from the latest output of NWP models

Metra a subsidiary of MetService

MetService Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited

MGA Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysical Agency

MGA Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts

MIS Management Information System

MMS Malaysian Meteorological Service

MOFs Model Output Forecasts

MOS Model Output Statistics

MoU Memorandum of Understanding

MSLP Mean Sea Level (surface) Pressure

MTSAT Multi-functional Transport Satellite (to succeed the GMS series)

NAA National Archives Australia

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the USA

NASDA National Space Development Agency of Japan

NCC National Climate Centre

NCDC National Climate Data Center of US

NCEP National Centers for Environmental Prediction of the USA

NDVI Normalised Differential Vegetation Index

NEC Nippon Electric Company

NEPM National Environment Protection Measure

NGS National Greenhouse Strategy

NMGU National Media Graphics Unit

NMHS National Meteorological and Hydrological Service

NMOC National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre

NMRS New Marine Radio Service

NMS National Meteorological Service

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NWOC Nowra Weather and Oceanographic Centre of the RAN

NWP Numerical Weather Prediction

OEB Observations and Engineering Branch

OGO Office of Government Online

OIP Operational Improvement Program

OLR operating lease rentals

OPAG Open Program Area Group of the WMO Commission for Basic Systems

OPR Output Pricing Review

PAA Project Atmosphere Australia

PAYG Pay As You Go

PBS Portfolio Budget Statement

PC Personal Computer

PDF Probability Distribution Function

PMP Probable Maximum Precipitation

PNG Papua New Guinea

POD Probability of Detection

PRC Peer Review Committee of the National Environment Protection Council

QCCA Queensland Centre for Climate Applications

QMS Quality Monitoring System

QPF Quantitative precipitation forecast

RAAF Royal Australian Air Force

RAFC Regional Area Forecasting Centre of ICAO

RainMan An agrometeorological software package

RainQC A system to monitor the quality of daily rainfall totals

RAINVAL A system for validating model forecasts of quantitative precipitation

RAN Royal Australian Navy

Rapic Radar Picture Display

RASS Radio Acoustic Sounding System

RBL Remote Balloon Launcher

RCL Recognition of Current Learning

RCS Reference Climate Station

Resolution 40 (of the Twelfth World Meteorological Congress) concerning free international exchange of basic meteorological data and products

RFC Regional Forecasting Centre

RMIT Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

RMS root mean square

RMSD Regional Meteorological Service Directors Meeting of SPREP

RO Regional Office of the Bureau

RPL Recognition of Prior Learning

RSMC Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre of WMO

RT Real time

RTF Request for Tender

RTH Regional Telecommunications Hubs

SAMU Sydney Airport Meteorological Unit

SAN Storage Area Network

SAP Software basis of the Bureau's new Financial Management System

SBSTA Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advice of the Conference of the Parties to the UN FCCC

SCO Seasonal Climate Outlook

SD Sales and Distribution module, of SAP

SES Senior Executive Service

SES State Emergency Services

SILO Project to provide Web access to a range of agrometeorological data

SitesDB Sites (metadata) Database

Slatyer II 1997 Report on Capturing Opportunities in the Provision of Meteorological Services, by Prof Ralph Slatyer

Slatyer I 1996 Report of the Review of the Operation of the Bureau of Meteorology, by Prof Ralph Slatyer

SMS Services Management System

SOC Special Oceanographic Centre of IGOSS

SOCOG Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games

SOI Southern Oscillation Index

SOE State of the Environment

SPROG Spectral PROGnosis, short term forecasting of rainfall

SPREP South Pacific Regional Environment Programme

SST Sea Surface Temperature

SSU Special Services Unit

SVS Standard Verification System of WMO's World Weather Watch

SX-4 NEC supercomputer within the HPCCC

SX-5 NEC supercomputer within the HPCCC

TAF Terminal Aerodrome Forecast

TAO Tropical Atmosphere Oceans

TAR Third Assessment Report of the IPCC

TARS Turn Around Ranging Stations

TBRG Tipping bucket rain gauges

TCCSPSEIO Tropical Cyclone Committee for the South Pacific and South-East Indian Ocean of WMO RA V

TC-LAPS Tropical cyclone version of the LAPS

TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

TCWC Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre

The Climate Zone NCC intranet data extraction system

ThunderBox Thunderstorm Toolbox

TITAN Thunderstorm identification, tracking, analysis and nowcasting

TLAPS Tropical LAPS

TOVS TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (NOAA14)

TPM Technology Park Malaysia

TTS Text to speech

UHF ultra high frequency

UN United Nations

UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNTAET United Nations Transitional Authority for East Timor

UTC Coordinated Universal Time, equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time

UV Ultra-violet radiation

VAAC Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre

VCP Voluntary Cooperation Programme of WMO

VHF Very High Frequency

VOS Voluntary Observing Ships

WAFC World Area Forecast Centre of ICAO

WAFS World Area Forecast System of ICAO

WAM sea state prediction model of NMOC

WAP Wireless Application Protocol

WATIR Weather and terminal information reciter

WCP World Climate Programme

WCRP World Climate Research Programme

Weather by Fax Weather information provided through Informatel's Infofax service

Weathercall Weather information provided through the 1900 telephone service

Weather 21 Television weather channel

Web World Wide Web

WGNE Working Group on Numerical Experimentation of WCRP

WMC World Meteorological Centre

WMO Region V South-West Pacific

WMO World Meteorological Organization

WRAP Worldwide Recurring ASAP Project

WSO Weather Service Office

WST Wholesale Sales Tax

WWRP World Weather Research Programme of WMO

WWW World Weather Watch Programme of WMO

XBT Expendable Bathythermograph

1-Dvar 1-dimensional variational data assimilation system

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