Acronym List

Definitions

AR7E section between Ireland and Greenland
This a research navigation section, which has been surveyed annually since 1990 (formerly WOCE Hydrographic Programme). The re-surveying of this section is carried out in order to identify climate related inter-annual changes of the hydrographic structure in the North Atlantic Ocean.
More information: http://www.nioz.nl/nioz_nl/3323231d4072f2f3f7edc4f30e9e7cd2.php

GC= Gas Chromatography  

GPP, Gross Primary Production The uptake of CO2 by plants through photosynthesis. However, plants also produce CO2 as they grow. Substracting this so-called autotrophic respiration from GPP gives NPP (Net Primary Productivity). Substracting further the heterotrophic respiration of decomposing litter gives NEE (Net Ecosystem Exchange).  

LULUCF
Activities in the LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector can provide a relatively cost-effective way of offsetting emissions, either by increasing the removals of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere (e.g. by planting trees or managing forests), or by reducing emissions (e.g. by curbing deforestation). However, there are drawbacks as it may often be difficult to estimate greenhouse gas removals and emissions resulting from activities of LULUCF. In addition, greenhouse gases may be unintentionally released into the atmosphere if a sink is damaged or destroyed through a forest fire or disease. Under Article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol, Parties decided that greenhouse gas removals and emissions through certain activities — namely, afforestation and reforestation since 1990 — are accounted for in meeting the Kyoto Protocol’s emission targets. Conversely, emissions from deforestation activities will be subtracted from the amount of emissions that a Party may emit over its commitment period. Under Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol, Parties could elect additional human-induced activities related to LULUCF, specifically, forest management, cropland management, grazing land management and revegetation, to be included in its accounting for the first commitment period.
More information: http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/gpglulucf/gpglulucf.htm  

PBL-Planetary Boundary Layer ; Atmospheric boundary layer (ABL)
The planetary boundary layer (PBL), also known as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), is the lowest part of the atmosphere and its behavior is directly influenced by its contact with the planetary surface. It is that part of the atmosphere that is influenced by the diurnal cycle as it responds to surface forcings (e.g. heating by the sun) in a timescale of an hour or less. In the PBL the wind and anything carried by the wind, is in turbulent motion. This makes vertical mixing very effective. In contrast above the PBL, the air moves non-turbulent and vertical mixing is much more slow.  

Reco Respiration/release of CO2 by the Ecosystem. It is composed of autotrophic respiration (plants growing) and heterotrophic respiration (litter decomposing). See also GPP.

  
Models  

C-LSM
Catchment-based land surface model (C-LSM), actually this is a class of models; several examples exist. In this model plant photosynthesis (and growth) are tightly coupled to transpiration. C-LSM is a model type often used for initialization and forecasting of land surface soil moisture in fully-coupled climate system models. This coupling between photosynthesis and plant growth is critical for seasonal-to-interannual climatological and hydrological prediction. 

EC-Bilt
EC-Bilt is a dynamic atmospheric model that is simple and describes the relevant dynamic and thermodynamic feedback processes to the ocean. As it is computationally ‘cheap’ , it is especially suitable for long simulations (100-1000’s yrs).
More information: http://www.knmi.nl/onderzk/CKO/ecbilt.html  

ECHAM5/OM1 model
The ECHAM5/OM1 model is a state-of-the-art climate model, that is used within CcSP and the ESSENCE project (EU project in which KNMI participates). The model is also used for the IPCC 4th assessment report. The model produces a large ensemble of climate runs from 1950-2100. This ensemble allows for analyzing changes in climate extremes, such as rare storms and droughts.
More information: http://www.mpimet.mpg.de/fileadmin/publikationen/Reports/max_scirep_349.pdf  

ECMWF model
Since 1979 the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) develops weather forecasts up to 10 day-projections with use of one of the largest computers of the world. The model is often quoted by weather forecasts on television and newspapers. Less known is that the calculations for weather predictions for a certain periods 30 upto 50 times is repeated, resulting in an collection of climate fore casts (meteorologists prefer to speak about ensembles). Jointly with the standard weather forecasts. The system that generates these ensembles is called EPS (Ensemble Prediction System).
More information: http://www.ecmwf.int/ 

MM5/WRF Two versions of another mesoscale meteorological model (like RAMS and RACMO).

RACMO
Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO), operational at KNMI, is the Regional Climate model (RCM) used within the CcSP programme. Regional Climate Model (RCM) = a high resolution version of a Global Climate Model (GCM). An RCM is typically used to downscale GCM-results to the regional and local scale, and to address physical phenomena at a greater detail than is possible with course-resolution GCM’s.

RAMS
Another regional climate model that is used within CcSP, in addition to RACMO and WRF, is named RAMS (Regional Atmospheric Modeling System). RAMS is a state-of-the-art mesoscale modeling system with applications in atmospheric research, high-resolution weather forecasting, photochemical ozone modeling and precursor transport, air quality studies, acid deposition, long range transport, nuclear emergency response, and environmental and atmospheric research. RAMS can drive advanced Lagrangian particle and Eulerian dispersion models which predict mesoscale pollution impacts in complex, time-dependent, mesoscale circulations. Worldwide there are over 140 sites running RAMS.
More information: http://atmet.com/  

TM5
An atmospheric transport and air chemistry model. It takes the atmospheric flow patterns from other models (like ECMWF) and then computes transport of many trace gas as well as their chemical interactions and interactions with radiation.  
 

Statistical Models  

Bayseian concepts, Eulerian inversion schemes, SVD inversion
Statistical and mathematical methods used within the mitigation them.  

GLUE (generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation)  
A Monte Carlo–based technique that can be used to estimate model parameters, giving precise statistical information about the resulting accuracy/uncertainty of these parameters. GLUE is mostly used for hydrological models. Like METROPOLIS it is limited in applicability because of its heavy computational demands.  

METROPOLIS Is a particular implementation of an Monte Carlo based, Baysian algorithm that can be used to estimate model parameters, giving precise statistical information about the resulting accuracy/uncertainty of these parameters (see also GLUE).  
    

Instruments  

Cavity Ringdown systems (CRD)
An apparatus and method for determining the presence of a trace species in a sample gas contained in a ‘resonant cavity’. The gas concentration is determined from the amount of radiation absorbed in a very specific wavelength. The ‘resonant cavity’ means that the sample tube has mirrors on both ends, as a result of which the light beam crosses the sample gas thousands of time (increasing the effective path length). This makes it a fast, yet very sensitive sensor to measure very low concentrations of trace gases in air (like e.g. CH4, N2O).
More information: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20050062972.html  

Eddy Correlation Systems
The Eddy Covariance method uses high frequency wind and scalar atmospheric data series, to yield values of fluxes of these properties, representing quite large areas (so-called footprint) depending on the height of the measurements above the surface. For instance, it is used within CcSP to measure the net ecosystem flux of carbon from vegetated areas, over long periods. In addition fluxes of N2O and CH4 are measured (innovation). Eddy Covariance allows the carbon dioxide flux from an ecosystem to the atmosphere to be estimated. A sonic anemometer (measuring wind speed) and infrared beam (measuring carbon dioxide concentrations) are usually grouped on a tower (but also e.g. on an aircraft), above vegetation. In a nutshell, the 3D wind and another variable (usually CO2 concentration, etc) are decomposed into mean and fluctuating components. The covariance is calculated between the fluctuating component of the vertical wind and the fluctuating component of CO2 concentration (or any other property of the air). The vertical flux of CO2 is then proportional to the covariance of the two signals.
More information: http://www.climatexchange.nl/projects/bsikme1/  

NDIR-Nondispersive Infrared sensors
Nondispersive Infrared (NDIR) sensors are simple spectroscopic devices often used for gas analysis. The measuring method is based on the principle of light absorption in the infrared region. The broadband infrared radiation produced by the light source passes through a chamber filled with gas, generally methane or carbon dioxide. The gas absorbs radiation of a known wavelength and this absorption is a measure of the concentration of the gas. There is a narrow bandwidth optical filter at the end of the chamber to remove all other wavelengths before it is measured with a pyro-electric detector.
More information: http://www.habmigern2003.info/future_trends/infrared_analyser/ndir/ndir.htm  

Quantum Cascade laser (QCL)  
Though the term literally only refers to a single component of it, here it indicates an instrument used to measure trace gas concentrations from the amount of radiation absorbed in a very specific wavelength. This light is produced very effectively and in a very narrow wavelength (making it very specific for a particular gas) by the QCL The QCL is based on a fundamentally different principle to normal semiconductor lasers (like in CD players), being a so-called unipolar laser.  

Raman-LIDAR system
Ground based Raman LIDAR systems have come to be regarded as the best source of high spatial and temporal resolution atmospheric water vapor and aerosol extinction data. These measurements are very valuable for studies of atmospheric radiation balance, convective storm development and micro- to meso-scale meteorology.
Raman LIDAR systems can also be used to look for chemicals resulting from chemical, or biological weapons, narcotics or other illegal drug processing, and accidents involving hazardous materials on any surface. Chemicals are identified through analysis of the Raman scattering generated by laser illumination of the target area.
More information: http://www.cesar-observatory.nl/  

Rn Sensors  
Sensors that detect the gas Radon (Rn). The isotope 222Rn is used as a tracer to test atmospheric transport models, as its natural source is (assumed to be) very homogeneous in space and time. It is chemically inert, but it decays radioactively (halftime 3.8 days). Therefore once in the air its fate is very precisely know (unlike e.g. methane that partakes in many chemical reactions).  

TDL-tunable diode laser
A TDL is able to measure trace gas concentration in an air sample using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS). ‘Tunable’ implies the wavelength of its light can be adjusted allowing measurement of several gases with one instrument (unlike the QCL and CRD instruments which are designed specifically to one particular gas). It is a rugged, semi-portable instrument designed for use in the field. Common applications include gradient or Eddy Covariance flux measurements of methane or nitrous oxide and isotope ratio measurements of carbon dioxide or water vapor.

Programmes  

CESAR
The Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) is located in The Netherlands. It consists of a large set of instruments to study the atmosphere and its interaction with the land surface. The CESAR site is used for monitoring of long term tendencies in atmospheric changes, Studies of atmospheric and land surface processes for climate modeling, Validation of space-borne observations and the development, implementation of new measurement techniques  and the training of young scientists.
More information: http://www.cesar-observatory.nl/  

CHIOTTO
CHIOTTO is a EU funded project in the 5th Framework program. The main target of the project is the installment and extension of measurements of greenhouse gases using tall towers all over Europe. CHIOTTO is part of the CARBO-EUROPE cluster.
More information: http://www.chiotto.org/  

Living with Water
Living with Water is a research programme, also funded by BSIK, like the CcSP programme. In this programme project consortia collaborate on achieving changes in water management. These changes are required because traditional water management methods are reaching their limits: technical measures alone are insufficient.
More information: http://www.levenmetwater.nl/