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Radio Astronomy Abbreviations and Acronyms

Many entries have more than one meaning and the correct one should be clear from the context. If you have corrections or additions, please contact whitreeve_@_gmail_dot_com. The following resources were used to prepare this glossary of abbreviations and acronyms: http://www.aaas.org, http://www.arrl.org, http://www.haystack.mit.edu/hay/glossary.html, http://www.ieee.org, http://www.nasa.gov, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronomy_acronyms

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Click one of the letters above to advance the page to terms beginning with that letter.

A: ampere or ampere-turn
A&A: Astronomy & Astrophysics
AAA: Amateur Astronomers Association of New York
AAAS: American Association for the Advancement of Science
AAM: Atmospheric Angular Momentum
AAO: Australian Astronomical Observatory (prior name)
AAS: American Astronomical Society
AAT: Anglo-Australian Telescope
AAVSO: American Association of Variable Star Observers
ac or AC: Alternating Current
ACE: Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft
ACIS: Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer
ACM: Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors
ADC: Astronomical Data Center, or Analog-Digital Converter
ADEC: Astrophysics Data Centers Executive Council
ADEOS: ADvanced Earth Exploration Satellite
ADF: Astrophysics Data Facility
ADIS: Astrophysics Data and Information Services
ADS: Astrophysics Data Service, or Aitken Double Stars
ADS: Advanced Digital System, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance
AEN: Alfred E. Neuman, famous astrophysicists and funny guy
AF: Audio Frequency, or Ambiguity Function
AFGL: Air Force Geophysics Laboratory
AFGL: Air Force Geophysics Laboratory
AFL: Above Floor Level
AFOSR: Air Force Office of Scientific Research
AFSCN: Air Force Satellite Control Network (USA)
AG: Astronomische Gesellschaft
AGC: Automatic Gain Control
AGK: Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog
AGL: Above Ground Level
AGN: Active Galactic Nucleus
AGU: American Geophysical Union
Ah: ampere-hour
AJ: Astronomical Journal
ALaMO: Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatory
ALMA: Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array
ALMA: Atacama Large Millimeter Array
ALPO: Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers
AM: Amplitude Modulation
AMANDA: Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array
AMS: American Meteor Society
AmS: Amateur Service
AMSAT: Radio AMateur SATellite Corporation
AMSC: AMerican Mobile Satellite Corporation
AMSL: Above Mean Sea Level
AmSS: Amateur Satellite Service
AN: Astronomische Nachrichten
ANSI: American National Standards Institute
ANT: ANTenna
APCO: Association of Public Safety Communications Officials - International (USA)
APO: Apache Point Observatory
APOD: Astronomy Picture of the Day
APRS: Automatic Position Reporting System
ARA: Amateur Radio Astronomy
ARC: Ames Research Center, or Astrophysical Research Consortium
ARES: Amateur Radio Emergency Service
ARISS: Amateur Radio on International Space Station
ARPS: Amateur Radio Packet System
ARRL: American Radio Relay League
ARSR: Air Route Surveillance Radar
ASA: Astronomical Society of the Atlantic
ASA: Australian Space Agency
ASDE: Airport Surveillance Detection Equipment (USA)
ASG: Atmospheric Sciences Group
ASIAA: Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
ASK: Amplitude Shift Keying
ASO: Australian Space Office
ASP: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ASR: Airport Surveillance Radar
AST: Alaska Standard Time
ASTM: American Society for Testing Materials
ASV: Astronomical Society of Victoria
ATA: Allen Telescope Array
ATC: Air Traffic Control
ATCA: Australia Telescope Compact Array
atm: atmosphere
ATM: Amateur Telescope Making
ATMoB: Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston
ATN: Amateur Television Network
ATU: Arab Telecommunication Union
ATV: Amateur TeleVision
AU: Astronomical Unit
AUASS: Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences
AURA: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
AVC: Automatic Volume Control
AWACS: Airborne Warning And Control System
Az or AZ: Azimuth

b
BAA: British Astronomical Association
BAAS: Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
BAC: Bordeaux Astrographic Catalog, or Bank AmeriCard
BAO: Beijing Astronomical Observatory
BASIS: Burst and All Sky Imaging Survey
BAT: Burst Alert Telescope
BB: BlackBody
BCD: Blue Compact Dwarf, or
Basic Calibrated Data, or
Binary Coded Decimal
BCD: Blue Compact Dwarf, or Basic Calibrated Data, or Binary Coded Decimal
BCE: Beta CEphei
BCG: Blue Compact Galaxy, or Brightest Cluster Galaxy
BCVS: Bibliographic Catalog of Variable Stars
Bd: Baud
BECP: Beta CEPhei
BEL: Broad Emission Line clouds
BEN: Jack Bennett catalog
BF: Broadening Function
BH: Black Hole
BHC: Black Hole Candidate
BIMA: Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association
BIS: British Interplanetary Society
BITP: Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics
BNSC: British National Space Centre
BNSC: British National Space Centre
BOAO: Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory
BPF: Band Pass Filter
BPM: Bruce Proper Motion
bps: bit per second (b/s preferred)
BPSK: Binary Phase Shift Keying
BRF: Band Reject Filter
BSG: Blue Super Giant
BSS: Blue Straggler Star, or Bigelow Sky Survey
Btu: British thermal unit
BW: BeamWidth, or BandWidth

c
CADC: Canadian Astronomy Data Centre
CAHA: Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán
cal: calorie
CAPS: CAssini Plasma Spectrometer
CARA: California Association for Research in Astronomy, or Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica
CASCA: Canadian Astronomical Society / Société canadienne d'astronomie
CASS: Center for Advanced Space Studies
CAST: Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CN)
CATV: Community Antenna TeleVision, or CAble TeleVision
CB: Citizen Band
CBR: Cosmic Background Radiation (see also CMB, CMBR, MBR)
CCD: Charge Coupled Device, or Color-Color Diagram
CCDM: Catalog of Components of Double and Multiple Stars
CCIR: Comite Cosultatif International des Radiocommunications (see ITU-R)
CCIT: Comite Consultatif International de Telegraphe et des Telecommunications (see ITU-T)
CCO: Catalogue of Cometary Orbits, or Central Compact Object
CCS: Cool Carbon Star
Cd: candle
CD: Cordoba Durchmusterung, or Compact Disk
CDIMP: Catalogue of Discoveries and Identifications of Minor Planets
CDM: Cold Dark Matter
CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access
CDS: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
CEDAR: Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions
CELT: California Extremely Large Telescope
CEMP: Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor star
CEP: CEPheid
CEPS: Center for Earth and Planetary Studies
CfA: Center for Astrophysics
CG: Center of Gravity, or Cometary Globual, or Compact Galaxy
CGRO: Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
CGS: centimeter-gram-second
CGSS: Catalog of Galactic S-Stars
CH HSS: Coronal Hole High-Speed Stream
CHARA: Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy
CIB: Cosmic Infrared Background
CIBR: Cosmic Infrared Background Radiation
CIO: Catalog of Infrared Observations
CISPR: International Special Committee on Radio Interference
cm: centimeter
CM: Central Meridian, or Center of Mass
CMB: Cosmic Microwave Background
CMBR: Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
CMC: Carlsberg Meridian Catalog
CMD: Color Magnitude Diagram
CME: Coronal Mass Ejection
cmil: circular mil
CML: Central Meridian Longitude
CNB: Cosmic Neutrino Background
CNES: Center Nationale d’Etudes Spatiales
Coax: Coaxial cable
COBE: COsmic Background Explorer
COFDM: Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex
Col: Collinder catalog
COMSAT: Communications Satellite Corporation (USA)
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CRAF: Committee on Radio Astronomical Frequencies (ESF)
CSA: Canadian Space Agency
CSI: Catalog of Stellar Identification, or Crime Scene Investigation
CSIRO: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia)
CSO: Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
CSS: Catalina Sky Survey
CST: Central Standard Time
CSV: Catalog of Suspected Variables
CTIO: Cerro Tolodo Interamerican Observatory
CW: Carrier Wave, or Continuous Wave
CXBR: Cosmic X-ray Background Radiation

d
d: day
DAB: Digital Audio Broadcast
DAC: Digital-Analog Converter
DAO: Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
dB: deciBel
dBc: dB with respect to carrier level
dBd: dB with respect to dipole antenna
dBi: dB with respect to isotropic antenna
dBm: dB with respect to 1 milliwatt
DBS: Digital Broadcast Satellite, or Digital Broadcasting by Satellite
dBu: dB with high impedance termination (unloaded)
dBuV: dB with respect to 1 microvolt
dBV: dB with respect to 1 volt
dBW: dB with respect to 1 watt
dc or DC: Direct Current
DCT: Discrete Cosine Transform coding
DDRR: Directional Discontinuity Ring Radiator
Dec or DEC: Declination
DECT: Digital European Cordless Telecommunications System
deg: degree
DES: Dark Energy Survey, or Deep Elliptic Survey
DFT: Discrete Fourier Transform
DGPS: Differential GPS
Dish: parabolic or spherical dish antenna
DME: Distance Measuring Equipment
DoD: Department of Defense (USA)
DPOSS: Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
DRS: Digital Relay Satellite
DSBS: Digital Sound Broadcasting Satellite
DSCS: Defense Satellite Communications System (USA)
DSN: Deep Space Network
DSP: Digital Signal Processing, or Digital Signal Processor
DSS: Digitized Sky Survey
DST: Daylight Saving Time
DX: Distance
dyn: dyne

e
E-ELT: European Extremely Large Telescope
E-TDMA: Extended Time Division Multiple Access
e-VLBI: electronic-VLBI
EAS: European Astronomical Society
EC: European Community
ECA: Earth Crossing Asteroid
EEPROM: Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EEROM: Electrically Erasable Read-Only Memory
EHF: Extra High Frequency (3 - 30 GHz)
EIRP: Effective Isotropic Radiated Power
El or EL: Elevation
ELF: Extra Low Frequency (< 3 kHz)
ELT: Extremely Large Telescope, or Emergency Locator Transmitter
EM: ElectroMagnetic
EMC: ElectroMagnetic Compatibility
EMI: ElectroMagnetic Interference
EMP: ElectroMagnetic Pulse, or Ephermerides of Minor Planets
EOR: Epoch of Re-ionization
EOS: Earth Observation Satellite
EPFD: Equivalent Power Flux Density
EPIRB: Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon
EPROM: Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory
ERP: Effective Radiated Power (relative to half-wave dipole)
ESA: European Space Agency
ESOC: European Space Operations Centre
ESRO: European Space Research Organization
EST: Eastern Standard Time
ET: Ephemeris Time, or Elapsed time, or Estimated Time, or ExtraTerrestrial
ETSI: European Telecommunication Standards Institute
EUV: Extreme Ultra-Violet
eV: electronVolt
EVN: European VLBI Network

f
f: farad
FAA: Federal Aviation Administration (USA)
fc: footcandle
FCC: Federal Communications Commission
FDD: Frequency Division Duplex
FDMA: Frequency Division Multiple Access
FEC: Forward Error Correction
FFT: Fast Fourier Transform
FIR: Far InfraRed
fL: footlambert
FLWO: Fred L. Whipple Observatory
fm: femtometer
FM: Frequency Modulation
FPI: Fabry-Perot Interferometers
FR: Faraday Rotation
FSC: Faint Source Catalog
FSK: Frequency Shift Keying
FSTV: Fast Scan TeleVision
ft: foot
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
FWHM: Full Width Half-Maximum

g
g: gram
G: gauss, or Gravitational constant
G/T: Gain-to-Noise Temperature ratio
gal: gallon
Gb: gilbert
GBT: Green Bank Telescope
GC: Galactic Center, or General Catalog
GCVS: General Catalog of Variable Stars
GEM: Galileo Europa Mission
GEO: Geosynchronous Earth Orbit, or Geostationary Earth Orbit
GeV: billion electronVolts (gigaelectronolts)
GHz: gigahertz
GLAST: Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
GLONASS: GLobal NAvigation Satellite System (Russia)
GMF: Galactic Magnetic Field
GMRT: Giant Meter Radio Telescope
GMT: Greenwich Mean Time, or Giant Magellan Telescope
GND: Ground (see also GRD)
GNSS: Global Navigation Satellite System
GOES: Geostationary Observational Environmental Satellite
GPS: Global Positioning Satellite, or Global Positioning System
gr: grain
GR: General Relativity
GRB: Gamma-Ray Burst
GRD: Ground (see also GND)
GRO: Gamma-Ray Observatory
GRS: Great Red Spot
GSC: Guide Star Catalog
GSFC: Goddard Space Flight Center
GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications
GSO: Geostationary Satellite Orbit
GST: Greenwich Sidereal Time

h
h: hour
H: henry
HAARP: High frequency Active Auroral Research Program
HAO: High Altitude Observatory
HCO: Harvard College Observatory
HDTV: High Definition TeleVision
He: Helium
HEAO: High-Energy Astronomical Observatory
HEMP: High-altitude Electromagnetic Pulse
HEO: Highly inclined Elliptical Orbit
HF: High Frequency (3 - 30 MHz)
HGA: High Gain Antenna
HI: neutral hydrogen
HIPPARCOS: High-Precision PARallax Collecting Satellite
hp: horsepower
HPBW: Half-Power BeamWidth
HPF: High Pass Filter
HRMS: High Resolution Microwave Survey
HST: Hubble Space Telescope
HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol
HV: High Voltage
Hz: hertz

i
IARU: International Amateur Radio Union
IAU: International Astronomical Union
ICE: International Comet Explorer
ICRF: International Celestial Reference Frame
ICRS: International Celestial Reference System
IDA: International Dark Sky Association
IDS: Index catalog of Double Stars
IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission
IEE: Institution of Electrical Engineers
IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IF: Intermediate Frequency
IGM: Inter-Galactic Medium
IGY: International Geophysical Year
ILS: Instrument Landing System
IMACT: International Monitoring Program for Asteroid and Comet Threat
IMO: International Meteor Organization
in: inch
INMARSAT: INternational MAritime SATellite organization
INTELSAT: INternational TELecommunications SATellite organization
IoA: Institute of Astronomy (Cambridge)
IPM: Inter-Planetary Medium
IPS: Interplanetary Scintillation
IR: InfraRed
ISM: Inter-Stellar Medium
ISO: Infrared Space Observatory
ISO: International Organization for Standards
ISR: Incoherent Scatter Radar
ISR: Incoherent Scatter Radar
ISS: International Space Station, or Inter-Satellite Service
ISSA: Infrared Sky Survey Atlas
ITU: International Telecommunications Union
ITU-R: International Telecommunications Union – Radio communication sector
ITU-T: International Telecommunications Union – Telecommunication sector

j
j: joule
JCMT: James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
JD: Julian Date or Julian Day
JGR: Journal of Geophysical Research
JPL: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JRO: Jicamarca Radio Observatory
JSC: Johnson Space Center
Jy: jansky

k
K: kelvin
KBO: Kuiper Belt Object
KCAO: Kumamoto Civil Astronomical Observatory
kg: kilogram
kG: kilogauss
kHz: kilohertz
km/h: kilometer per hour
kn: knot
KPNO: Kitt Peak National Observatory
kV: kilovolt
kVA: kilovoltampere
kvar: kilovar
kW: kilowatt
kWh: kilowatthour

l
L: liter
LAN: Local Area Network
LANL: Los Alamos National Laboratory
LASCO: Large Angle Spectrometric Coronograph
Laser: Light amplification by stimulated emission
lb: pound
LBNL: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
LC: inductance-Capacitance
LCROSS: Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite
LEO: Low Earth Orbit
LF: Low Frequency (30 - 300 kHz)
LGA: Low Gain Antenna
LGM: Little Green Men
LHC: Left Hand Circular
LL: Lincoln Laboratory
lm: lumen
LMC: Large Magellanic Cloud
LNA: Low Noise Amplifier
LNB: Low Noise Block converter
LOD: Length of Day
LOFAR: LOw-Frequency ARray
LPA: Log Periodic Antenna (see also LPDA)
LPDA: Log Periodic Dipole Antenna, or Log Periodic Dipole Array
LPF: Low Pass Filter
LPO: La Palma Observatory
LPV: Long Period Variable
LSB: Lower Side Band
LSI: Large Scale Integration
LSR: Local Standard of Rest
LST: Local Sidereal Time, or Landing Ship – Tank
LV: Low Voltage
lx: lux
ly or lyr: lightyear

m
m: meter
mA: milliampere
MACS: Magellanic Catalog of Stars
Maser: Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission
mbar: millibar
MBR: Microwave Background Radiation
MEO: Medium Earth Orbit
MeV: megaelectronvolt
MF: Medium Frequency (300 - 3,000 kHz)
mg: milligram
mH: millihenry
MHD: Magneto-Hydro Dynamic
MHO: Millstone Hill Observatory
MHz: megahertz
mi: mile (statute)
mi/h: mile per hour
MIDAS: Millstone Incoherent Scatter Data Acquisition System
min: minute
MISA: Millstone Incoherent Scatter Antenna
MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MJD: Modified Julian Date
MKS: meter-kilogram-second
mL: milliliter
mm: millimeter
mo: month
mol: mole
MOST: Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope
mph: mile per hour (see mi/h)
MRO: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
ms: millisecond
MSK: Minimum Shift Keying
MSP: MlliSecond Pulsar
MST: Mesosphere, Stratosphere, Troposphere, or Mountain Standard Time
MUF: Maximum Usable Frequency
mV: millivolt
mW: milliwatt
MWA: Mileura Widefield Array
Mx: maxwell

n
N: newton
nA: nanoampere
NAIC: National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center
NAMN: North American Meteor Network
NAOJ: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NAVSTAR: See GPS
NB: Noise Blanker
NBS: National Bureau of Standards (see NIST)
NCAR: National Center for Atmospheric Research
NEROC: Northeast Radio Observatory Corporation
nF: nanofarad
NGC: New General Catalog
nH: nanohenry
NIMS: Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer
NIR: Near InfraRed
NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology
nm: nanometer
nmi: nautical mile
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Np: neper
NRAO: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
NRL: Naval Research Laboratory
ns: nanosecond
NSF: National Science Foundation
NSO: National Solar Observatory
NSSDC: National Space Science Data Center
nT: nanotesla
NTIA: National Telecommunications and Information Administration (USA)
NWS: National Weather Service (USA)

o
OCXO: Oven Controlled crystal Oscillator
Oe: oersted
OFCOM: Office of Communications (UK), or Federal Office of Telecommunications (Switzerland)
OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex
OFR: Off Frequency Rejection
OQPSK: Offset QPSK
OSCAR: Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio
OSS: Ohio Sky Survey
OTH: Over The Horizon
OTHB: Over-The-Horizon Backscatter
OTHR: Other-The-Horizon Radar
oz: ounce

p
P: poise
p-p: peak-to-peak
Pa: pascal
pA: picoampere
PBL: Plasmasphere Boundary Layer
PC: Personal Computer
PCM: Pulse Code Modulation
PCN: Personal Communications Network
PCS: Personal Communications Service
PDF: Probability Density Function, or Portable Document Format
PEP: Peak Envelope Power
pF: picofarad
PFD: Power Flux Density
PHP: Hypertext PreProcessor
pk: peak
PLC: PowerLine Communications
PLT: PowerLine Transmissions
PMC: Polar Mesospheric Cloud
PSK: Phase Shift Keying
PSR: PulSaR
PST: Pacific Standard Time
pt: pint
PTT: Push-To-Talk, or Post, Telegraph, Telephone (government ministry for ... )
pW: picowatt

q
QAM: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QPSK: Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
QSO: Quasi-Stellar Object
qt: quart
Quasar: QUASi-StellAR object

r
RA: Right Ascension, or Radio Astronomy
rad: radian
RADAR: RAdio Detection And Ranging
RAG: Radio Astronomy Group
RAM: Random Access Memory
RAS: Radio Astronomy Section, or Radio Astronomical Society
RC: Resistance-Capacitance
RF: Radio Frequency
RFI: Radio Frequency Interference
RFID: Radio Frequency Identification
RGB: Red-Green-Blue
RGO: Royal Greenwich Observatory
RHC: Right Hand Circular
RJP: Radio-Jupiter Pro
RLAN: Radio Local Area Network
rms: root mean square
ROM: Read Only Memory
ROM: Read Only Memory
RPM: revolutions per minute (r/min preferred)
RSA: Russian Space Agency
RSGB: Radio Society of Great Britain
RSN: Radio SuperNova
RSP: Radio-SkyPipe
RSS: Radio-Sky Spectrograph
RTTY: Radio TeleTYpe
RX or Rx: Receiver

s
s: siemens
SA: Spectrum Analyzer
SAAO: South African Astronomical Observatory
SAPS: Sub-Auroral Polarization Stream
SARA: Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
SAT: SATellite
SATCOM: SATellite COMmunications
SAW: Surface Acoustic Wave
Scope: radio teleScope or optical teleScope or oscilloScope
SDO: Solar Dynamics Observatory
SDR: Software Defined Radio
SED: Storm-Enhanced Density
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
SGC: Superior Geocentric Conjuction
SHF: Super High Frequency (3 - 30 GHz)
SI: International System of Units
SID: Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance
SKA: Square Kilometer Array
SKED: Schedule
SL: Shoemaker-Levy, or SpaceLab
SL-9: Shoemaker-Levy comet
SMA: SubMillimeter Array, or SubMiniature version A connector
SMR: Sub-Millimeter Radiometer
SN: SuperNova
SNR: Signal-to-Noise Ratio, or SuperNova Remnant
SOHO: SOlar Heliospheric Observatory
SPARC: Space Physics & Aeronomy Research Collaboratory
sr: steradian
SR: Special Relativity
SRT: Small Radio Telescope
SSB: Single Side Band
SSTV: Slow Scan TeleVision
sterad: steradian (sr preferred)
STEREO: Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory spacecraft
SW: ShortWave
SWL: ShortWave Listening
SWR: Standing Wave Ratio (see VSWR)
sync: Synchronization

t
t: metric ton
T: tesla
T2FD: Tilted Terminated Folded Dipole antenna
TACAN: TACtical Air Navigation
TAI: International Atomic Time
TASS: The Amateur Sky Survey
TCP: Transmission Control Protocol
TCXO: Temperature Compensated crystal Oscillator
TDM: Time Division Multiplex
TDMA: Time Division Multiple Access
TEC: Total Electron Content
thm: therm
TIMED: Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics
TT: Terrestrial Time
TWR: ToWeR
TWT: Traveling Wave Tube
TWTA: Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier
TX or Tx: Transmitter

u
uA: microampere
UCAR: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
UDP: User Datagram Protocol
uF: microfarad
UFO: Unidentified Flying Object
uG: microgauss
uH: microhenry
UHF: Ultra-High Frequency (300 - 3,000 MHz)
UKRAA: United Kingdom Radio Astronomy Association
UKSA: UK Space Agency
um: micron or micrometer
URSI: International Union of Radio Science
us: microsecond
USAF: United States Air Force
USB: Upper Side Band, or Universal Serial Bus
USGS: United States Geological Survey
USNO: United States Naval Observatory
uT: microtesla
UT: Universal Time
UTC: Coordinated Universal Time
UV: Ultra-Violet
uVLBI: Ultra-wideband VLBI
uW: microwatt
UWB: Ultra-Wide Band

v
V: volt
VA: voltampere
var: voltampere-reactive
VHF: Very High Frequency (30 -300 MHz)
VISR: Virtual Incoherent Scatter Radar
VLA: Very Large Array
VLAN: Virtual Local Area Network
VLBA: Very Long Baseline Array
VLBI: Very Long Baseline Interferometry
VLF: Very Low Frequency (3 - 30 kHz)
VLT: Very Large Telescope
VOR: Very high frequency Omnidirectional Range
Vrms: Volts, root mean square
VSI: VLBI Standard Interface
VSWR: Voltage Standing Wave Ratio

w
W: watt
WARC: World Administrative Radio Conference (ITU)
Wb: weber
WG: WaveGuide
wh: watthour
WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network
WMW: What Me Worry?
WOM: Write-Only Memory

x
XO: crystal Oscillator
XUV: eXtreme Ultra-Violet

y
yd: yard
yr: year

z
ZIP: Zenith Ionospheric Profiler, or zero, nada, nothing

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