Wn-Wz

 

WNPCW

See Western North Pacific Central Water.

 

WOCE

Acronym for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment program, a cooperative scientific effort by more than 30 nations to provide essential strategic research on ocean circulation. The primary scientific goal of the U.S. WOCE component is to understand the global ocean circulation well enough to model its present state and predict its evolution in relation to long-term changes in the atmosphere. For more information see the U.S. WOCE Office Web site.

 

Wolf Minimum

An extended period of limited sunspot activity lasting from around 1282 to 1342. See Foukal (1990) and Wigley (1988).

 

Wolf sunspot number

A measure of sunspot given by

where f is the total number of spots regardless of size, g is the number of spot groups, and k normalizes the counts from different observations. Daily counts are made routinely at a number of astronomical observatories (as they have been in present form since 1848 when instituted by Rudolf Wolf at the observatory in Zurich, Switzerland) and the data are combined using the above equation and made available as daily numbers, monthly means, and yearly means. Daily numbers range from 0 to around 355, while the annual mean Wolf number varies from 0 to 10 in minimum years and from 50 to 190 for maximum years. This is also known as the Wolfer, Zurich or relative sunspot number.

 

World Climate Program

A program for which the WMO is the lead agency and coordinator, the purpose of which is to provide an authoritative international scientific voice on climate change and to assist countries in applying climate information and knowledge to sustainable development and the implementation of Agenda 21. It was started in 1979 as a successor to GARP with the major objectives of determining to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of man's influence on climate. The four major components of WCP are the WCDMP, the WCASP, the WCIRP, and the WCRP. More information can be found at the WCP Web site.

 

World Meteorological Organization

A specialized agency of the United Nations encompassing the field of meteorology. It replaced the IMO (International Meteorological Organization) in 1951. The purposes of the WMO are to facilitate world-wide co-operation in the establishment of networks of meteorological observation stations adn to promote the development of centers charged with the provision of meteorological services; to promote the rapid exchange of weather information and the standardization of meteorological observations and their publication; to further the application of meteorology to human activities and to encourage research and training in meteorology. More information can be found at the WMO Web site.

 

WOTAN

Acronym for Wind Observations Through Ambient Noise, an oceanographic instrument for the determination of wind stress from measurements of ambient noise.

 

WPWP

Abbreviation for western Pacific warm pool, an ENSO-related phenomenon defined as SSTs greater than or equal to 28 C. It is a large area of heat accumulation in the global ocean and related to the development of El Nino. See Ho et al. (1995).

 

WRI

Abbreviation for World Resources Institute.

 

WRMC

Abbreviation for World Radiation Monitoring Center, located in Zurich, Switzerland. This is the data center of the BSRN. See the WRMC Web site.

 

WSBW

See Weddell Sea Bottom Water.

 

WSDW

See Weddell Sea Deep Water.

 

WSI

Abbreviation for Whole Sky Imager, an instrument used in the ARM program. It is an automated imager used to measure cloud fields and cloud field dynamics. It is a ground-based, passive system that acquires images of the sky dome from three spectral filters (neutral, red and blue). These images can be processed to measure the presence, shape, distribution and radiance of clouds over the entire sky using automatic cloud decision algorithms. See the WSI Web site.

 

WSPCW

See Western South Pacific Central Water.

 

WW

See Winter Water.

 

WUE

In climatology, an Abbreviation for water use efficiency.

 

Wurm

The Alpine name for the Warthe-Weischel glacial period.

 

Wust, Georg

More later.

 

WWW

1. Abbreviation for World Wide Web, a term used to describe the international network of linked computer networks accessible via various methods such as telnet, FTP, and various browsers or clients (Netscape, Mosaic, Lynx, etc.). 2. Abbreviation for World Weather Watch, a WMO program for the world-wide collection, analysis and distribution of weather information. It consists of three components: (a) the Global observing system, comprising facilities on land, at sea, in the air and from satellites for the measurement of meteorological elements; (b) the Global Telecommunications System, a world-wide system for the rapid exchange of observations and processed information; and (c) the Global Data Processing System, a network of world and regional computerized data processing centers. For more information, see the WWW Web site.