ALM Aircraft Laser Mapping

ALOS Advanced Land Observing Satellite

BARD Bay Area Regional Dense array

BFE Base Flood Elevation

CDDIS Crustal Dynamics Data Information System

CDP Crustal Dynamics Program at NASA

CHAMP Challenging Mini-Satellite Payload for Geo-scientific Research and Applications Program

CITRIS Scintillation and Tomography Receiver in Space

CNES Centre National d’Études Spatiales, the French space agency

COMPASS Chinese GNSS, currently in development (also known as Beidou)

CONUS Continental/Coterminus/Contiguous United States

CORS Continuously Operating Reference Stations

COSMIC Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate

DAAC Distributed Active Archive Center

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DEM Digital Elevation Model

DESDynI Deformation, Ecosystem Structure, and Dynamics of Ice

DLR Deutsches Zentum für Luft-und Raumfahrt

DoD U.S. Department of Defense

DORIS Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite

DOSE Dynamics of the Solid Earth

DOT U.S. Department of Transportation

EDC EUROLAS Data Center

EGM2008 Earth Gravitational Model 2008

ENSO El Niño/Southern Oscillation

EOP Earth Orientation Parameters

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

ERS European Remote Sensing

ESA European Space Agency

ETS Episodic Tremor and Slip

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency

FGCS Federal Geodetic Control Subcommittee

FGDC Federal Geographic Data Committee

GDA Geocentric Datum of Australia

GDGPS Global Differential GPS

GPS Global Positioning System

GEO Group on Earth Observation

GEOINT Geospatial Intelligence

GEOSS Global Earth Observation System of Systems

GFO GeoSat Follow-on Mission

GFZ GeoForschungs Zentrum

GGOS Global Geodetic Observing System

GIA Glacial isostatic adjustment

GIS Geographic Information System

GLONASS Russian GNSS, also known as GLObal’naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema

GMSL Global Mean Sea Level

GNSS Global Navigational Satellite System

GOCE Gravity Field and Steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer

GPS Global Positioning System

GR General Relativity

GRACE Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

GRAIL Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory

GRASP Geodetic Reference Antenna in Space

GRAV-D Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum

GRGS Groupe de Raecherche de Géodésie Spatiale

HARNs High Accuracy Reference Networks

HF High Frequency

IAG International Association of Geodesy

IAS International Altimeter Service

ICESat Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite

IDS International DORIS Service

IERS International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service

IGFS International Gravity Field Service

IGN Institut Géographique National

IGS International GNSS Service

ILRS International Laser Ranging Service

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ITRF International Terrestrial Reference Frame

IVS International VLBI Service

JERS-1 Japanese Earth Resources Satellite

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory

kHz kiloHertz

LBS Location-Based Services

LEO Low-Earth Orbiting

LiDAR Light Detection and Ranging

LLR Lunar Laser Ranging

LoD Length of Day

MHHW Mean Higher High Water

MHW Mean High Water

MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology

NAD27 North American Datum of 1927

NAD83 North American Datum of 1983

NAREF North American Reference Frame

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NAVD88 North American Vertical Datum of 1988

NCALM National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping

NGA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

NGS National Geodetic Survey

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NRC National Research Council

NSDI National Spatial Data Infrastructure

NSF National Science Foundation

NSRS National Spatial Reference System

OGCMs Ocean General Circulation Models

PANGA Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array

PBO Plate Boundary Observatory

PGR Postglacial Rebound

PO.DAAC Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center

PSMSL Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level

PNT Positioning, Navigation, and Timing

POD Precise Orbit Determination

PWV Perceptible Water Vapor

SLR Satellite Laser Ranging

SMAP Soil Moisture Active and Passive Satellite

SMOS Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Satellite

SNARF Stable North American Reference Frame

SRTM Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

STP U.S. Space Test Program

SWOT Surface Water Ocean Topography

TAI International Atomic Time (from the French, Temps Atomique International)

TEC Total Electron Content

TIGA GPS TIde GAge bench mark monitoring

TWSTFT Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer

UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

UCSD/SIO University of California, San Diego/Scripps Institution of Oceanography

UHF Ultra High Frequency

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

USGS U.S. Geological Survey

USNO U.S. Naval Observatory

UTC Coordinated Universal Time

UT1 Universal Time 1

VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometry

VLF Very Low Frequency

WAAS Wide Area Augmentation System

WDC World Data Center

WGS-84 World Geodetic System 1984

WRMS Weighted Root-Mean Square