| ADEOS |
ADvanced Earth Observation System (Japanese satellite) |
| ALOS |
Advanced Land Observing Satellite (Japanese satellite) |
| AQUA |
Not an acronym - Earth Observing system satellite (NASA satellite) |
| ARIES |
Australian Resource Information and Environment Satellite |
| CBERS |
China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite |
| CHAMP |
Challenging Microsatellite Project |
| CryoSat |
Not really an acronym - ESA's ice altimetry satellite |
| ENVISAT |
Environment Satellite (ERS follow-on) |
| EOS |
Earth Observation System (NASA satellite series) |
| ERS |
European Remote Sensing satellite |
| EUMETSAT |
European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites |
| GEOS-3 |
Geodynamic Experimental Ocean Satellite (altimeter mission) |
| GEOSAT |
GEOdetic SATellite (altimeter mission) |
| GFO |
GEOSAT Follow On (altimeter mission) |
| GOCE |
Gravirt field dand steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer |
| GOES |
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (geostationary satellite series) |
| GRACE |
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment |
| HAIYANG-1 |
Chinese Ocean Satellite carrying the COCTS sensor |
| ICESAT |
Ice, Clouds, and Land Elevation Satellite (NASA Satellite) |
| IRS |
Indian Remote Sensing satellite |
| Jason |
Not an acronym but the name of a joint French/US altimeter mission |
| KOMPSAT |
Korea Multi-Purpose SATellite |
| LANDSAT |
LAND remote sensing SATellite (NOAA Satellite) |
| METEOR |
Russian Meteorological Satellite |
| METOP |
METeorological OPerational (EUMETSAT satellite) |
| Oceansat |
Indian Remote Sensing satellite |
| POES |
Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite |
| QuikScat |
Quick Scatterometer (mission and instrument) |
| RADARSAT |
RADAR SATellite (NASA Satellite) |
| RESURS |
Earth Remote Sensing satellite (Russian Satellite) |
| ROCSAT |
Republic of China Satellite |
| Seasat |
Sea Satellite (the first satellite specifically for viewing the oceans) |
| SMOS |
Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (ESA satellite) |
| SPOT |
Systeme Pour l'Observation de la Terre (French Satellite) |
| TERRA |
Not an acronym - Earth Observing system satellite (NASA satellite) |
| TIROS |
Television InfraRed Observation Satellite |
| T/P |
TOPEX/POSEIDON (a joint French/US altimeter satellite) |
| TRMM |
Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission |
| AATSR |
Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (on ENVISAT) |
| AIRS |
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (on AQUA satellite) |
| ALI |
Advanced Land Imager (on EO satellite) |
| AlphaSCAT |
Ku band scatterometer (on the Japanese GCOM-B1 Spacecraft) |
| AMI |
Active Microwave Instrument (scatterometer & SAR on ERS-1 & 2) |
| AMSR |
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (on Aqua/EOS and ADEOS-II) |
| ASAR |
Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (on ENVISAT) |
| ASTER |
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (on TERRA) |
| ATSR |
Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (on ERS-1/2) |
| AVHRR |
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (on the NOAA series satellites) |
| AVNIR |
Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer (on ADEOS) |
| COCTS |
Chinese Ocean Colour and Temperature Scanner |
| CZCS |
Coastal Zone Color Scanner (on TIROS-N) |
| EOSR |
Earth Observation & Scanning Radiometer (on EOS-AM2/3 satellites) |
| ETM+ |
Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (on LANDSAT7) |
| GLI |
Global Line Imager (ocean colour sensor on ADEOS-II) |
| MERIS |
Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (on ENVISAT) |
| MISR |
Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (on TERRA) |
| MODIS |
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (on EOS) |
| MOS |
Modular Optoelectronic Scanner (ocean colour sensor on IRS) |
| NSCAT |
NASA Scatterometer (on ADEOS) |
| OCI |
Ocean Colour Imager (on ROCSAT) |
| OCM |
Ocean Colour Monitor (on IRS-P4) |
| OCTS |
Ocean Colour and Temperature Scanner (on ADEOS) |
| OSMI |
Ocean Scanning Multispectral Imager (on KOMPSAT) |
| PALSAR |
Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (on KOMPSAT) |
| POLDER |
(Polarising colour sensor on ADEOS) |
| POSEIDON |
not actually an acronym but the name of the French solid state altimeter on T/P |
| PR |
Precipitation Radar (on TRMM) |
| QuikScat |
Quick Scatterometer (mission and instrument) |
| RA-2 |
Radar Altimeter (on ENVISAT) |
| SAR |
Synthetic Aperture Radar |
| SeaWiFS |
Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (US ocean colour sensor) |
| SeaWinds |
Name of the NASA Scatterometer on ADEOS-II |
| SMMR |
Scanning Multi-frequency (or Multi-channel) Microwave Radiometer |
| SSM/I |
Special Sensor Microwave / Imager |
| TOPEX |
TOPography EXperiment (the US altimeter on T/P) |
| TMI |
TRMM Microwave Imager |
| TMR |
TOPEX Microwave Radiometer (on TOPEX/POSEIDON) |
| AVISO |
French Ocean and Altimetry and Climate group |
| BADC |
British Atmospheric Data Centre |
| BODC |
British Oceanographic Data Centre |
| CLS |
Collecte Localisation Satellites |
| CNES |
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales |
| ECMWF |
European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting |
| ESA |
European Space Agency |
| GSFC |
Goddard Space Flight Centre |
| IFREMER |
French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea |
| JAXA |
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency |
| JPL |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| NASA |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| NASDA |
National Space Development Agency of Japan (now part of JAXA) |
| NASDA-EORC |
National Space Development Agency-Earth Observation Research Centre |
| NODC |
National Oceanographic Data Centre (part of NOAA) |
| NEODC |
NERC Earth Observation Data Centre |
| NERC |
Natural Environment Research Council |
| NESDIS |
National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (part of NOAA) |
| NOAA |
National National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration |
| PODAAC |
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Centre |
| RAL |
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory |
| NOC |
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton |
Sensors
