StarBriefs Plus: A Dictionary of Abbreviations, Acronyms and Symbols in Astronomy and Related Space Sciences

1102 Pages·2004·57.36 MB·English

by  André Heck (auth.)

StarBriefs Plus
StarBriefs Plus
A Dictionary of Abbreviations,
Acronyms and Symbols in Astronomy
and Related Space Sciences
Compiled by
André Heck
Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-94-015-6962-0 ISBN 978-0-306-48603-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-306-48603-6
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording
or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception
of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered
and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
StarBriefs Plus v
Foreword
This compilation probably looks like one of the craziest things a human being could spend his or her time on.
Yet nobody would wonder at someone taking a short walk every day- after some thirty years that person
would have covered a surprisingly long distance. This is exactly the story behind this list, which appeared
first as a few pages within the directory StarGuides (or whatever name it had at that time) and as a distinct
sister publication since 1990. This edition includes about 60,000 new entries- which represents an increase
of 43% compared with the previous edition (Heck 2000). See the review entitled From Early Directories to
Current Yellow-Page Services (Heck 2003a) for a history of those resources.
The idea behind this dictionary is to offer astronomers and related space scientists practical assistance in
decoding the numerous abbreviations, acronyms, contractions and symbols which they might encounter
in all aspects of the vast range of their professional activities, including traveling. Perhaps it is a bit
paradoxical, but if scientists quickly grasp the meaning of an acronym within their own specific disciplines,
they will probably encounter more difficulties when dealing with adjacent fields. It is for this purpose that
this dictionary might be most often used. Scientists might also refer to this compilation in order to avoid
identifying a project by an acronym which has already too many meanings or confused definitions.
Hence StarBriefs Plus, the enlarged and fully updated version of a series of dictionaries, gathers together
about 200,000 entries encountered in the literature of astronomy and space sciences, as well as of related fields
such as aeronautics, aeronomy, astronautics, atmospheric sciences, chemistry, communications, computer
sciences, data processing, education, electronics, energetics, engineering, environment, geodesy, geophysics,
information handling, management, mathematics, meteorology, optics, physics, remote sensing, and so on.
Abbreviations, acronyms, contractions and symbols in common use and/or of general interest have also
been included where appropriate. The traveling scientist has also not been forgotten, with the inclusion of
the codes of locations, currencies and so on. Compared with the previous versions, new categories such as
computer file extensions and major conferences have also been included. Separate sections are devoted to
Greek letters, mathematical symbols, special signs and characters, as well as to entries with a numerical
beginning.
We allowed an extensive number of technical acronyms to enter the list, because it is often difficult to find their
explanations in other sources. Deviations from standard or 'official' acronyms are also listed if their frequency
of occurrence in the literature justifies it - in such cases, the recommended explanation is flagged with an
asterisk. Many such precisions have been added to this edition (about 1300 in total). Similarly, in numerous
instances, complementary information has been offered between brackets (about 25,000 occurrences).
This compilation is essentially carried out in parallel with the permanent updating of the master files for
StarGuides, a directory of astronomy, space sciences and related organizations of the world made available
as a sister publication. In practice, all relevant abbreviations and acronyms encountered when scanning the
literature received relating to the StarGuides directory are gathered here, the underlying principle being
that they might also appear one day under the eyes of astronomers and related space scientists. We insist
that these are 'real' abbreviations and acronyms, in other words that they are not constructed automatically
from dictionaries as in some resources.
The associated directory StarGuides Plus (Heck 2003b) and its derived databases gather together all practical
data available on associations, societies, scientific committees, agencies, companies, institutions, universities,
etc., and more generally organizations, involved in astronomy and space sciences. Many other types of
entries have also been included such as academies, advisory and expert committees, bibliographic services,
consultants, data and documentation centres, dealers, distributors, funding agencies and organizations, jour
nals, manufacturers, meteorological services, museums, norms and standards offices, planetariums, public
observatories, publishers, research institutions in related fields, software producers and distributors, etc.
A. Heck StarBriefs Plus
vi StarBriefs Plus
The master files for the present compilation of StarBriefs Plus have been made accessible as an on-line
database at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) under the label StarWords (Albrecht & Heck 1994)
and at the Centre de Donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) as the database StarBits (Heck et al.
1994). They are now reachable on the web site of Kluwer Academic Publishers (http:/ jwww.wkap.nl/).
It should be noted that the manner of abbreviation is not always carried out in the same way in all countries.
The use of full points seems to be one of the features which varies the most (for instance, in some countries
they might be used after contractions whilst this would not be the case in other countries).
The meaning of abbreviations, acronyms, contractions and symbols should always be explained ·at their first
occurrence in any document. It would be even more practical and helpful if authors and editors systematically
tabulated them, with their explanations, at the end of the papers, chapters, reports, proceedings, books,
etc., they produce. Such a policy would at least remove any ambiguity, since, as shown many times in the
following pages, a given group of characters may have numerous meanings.
Socio-linguists might be interested in the following table giving the sixty most frequent terms (stop words
and country names excluded) appearing in the acronym explanations out of a total of about 107,800 different
words (at least two characters) for the whole dictionary (about 782,000 words in total).
Rank Word Freq. Rank Word Freq. Rank Word Freq.
1 System 11936 21 National 1808 41 Plan 1247
2 Data 5218 22 Time 1766 42 Language 1140
3 Control 4591 23 Engineering 1707 43 Automatic 1130
4 Information 4329 24 Association 1707 44 Access 1121
5 Management 3232 25 Interface 1601 45 Institute 1118
6 Test 3116 26 High 1588 46 Centre 1098
7 Program 2887 27 Digital 1475 47 Satellite 1083
8 Center 2650 28 Development 1421 48 Society 1081
9 Unit 2611 29 Integrated 1410 49 Review 1081
10 Research 2322 30 Office 1400 50 Maintenance 1038
11 International 2280 31 Equipment 1379 51 Mission 997
12 Network 2250 32 Systems 1358 52 Design 987
13 Analysis 2227 33 Facility 1345 53 Joint 972
14 Computer 2132 34 Operations 1326 54 European 971
15 Service 2024 35 Processing 1324 55 Standard 969
16 Support 1972 36 Communications 1320 56 Flight 969
17 Science 1870 37 Software 1289 57 Evaluation 968
18 Group 1870 38 Committee 1279 58 Area 966
19 Space 1851 39 Advanced 1278 59 Experiment 960
20 Technology 1839 40 Technical 1259 60 University 949
This frequency table, obtained from a significantly enlarged dictionary, confirms the results obtained in the
previous edition (Heck 2000). It gives a pretty good picture of our everyday jargon, with all terms being
English/ American ones in spite of the fact that the dictionary is multilingual. 90% of the sixty most frequent
terms of the previous edition remain among the current "Top 60". Six new terms moved in: 'Communica
tions' (ranking now 36th, previously 64th) makes the third largest jump forward, following 'Plan' (now 41st,
previously 84th) and mainly 'Evaluation' (now 57th, previously 107th). The other newcomers are 'Main
tenance' (now 50th, previously 70th), 'Joint' (now 53rd, previously 78th) and 'Area' (now 58th, previously
69th). Conversely the terms 'New', 'Assembly', 'Remote, 'Energy', 'Optical', 'Power', and 'Laboratory'
dropped behind the "Top 60" pack of the present version.
StarBriefs Plus A. Heck
StarBriefs Plus vii
'Space' (ranking now 19th, previously 12th) is still among the twenty most frequent terms, whilst the
first astronomy-related term, 'Observatory', comes well after the leading group (ranking 82nd) with 797
occurrences. 'Astronomical' and 'Telescope' are located around the 100th position with both 720 occurrences,
while 'Solar' follows (ranking 108th) with 679 appearances. 'Physics', 'Astronomy' and 'Physical' are way
behind with respectively 574, 511 and 228 occurrences only.
Significantly higher occurrences of words such as 'virtual' and derivatives were expected in this edition
since the spreading of virtual-reality techniques and the multiplication of virtual-observatory projects, but
all together they reach only about 500 appearances.
We also investigated how a frequency distribution would look when based on concepts or notions rather than
on specific terms. For instance under 'Science', we included not only its plural 'Sciences', but also terms
such as 'Scientific' and their equivalent in different languages. In a similar way, 'Test' covered words such as
'Testability', 'Testing', 'Tester', Testbed', 'Tests', and so on. The following table offers such a distribution
for the 30 most frequent concepts in this dictionary.
Rank Concept Freq. Rank Concept Freq. Rank Concept Freq.
1 System 13701 11 Unit 3216 21 Time 2356
2 Control 5427 12 Research 2903 22 Automatic 2344
3 Data 5313 13 Service 2818 23 Technology 2221
4 Information 4450 14 Processing 2799 24 Engineering 2183
5 Center 4321 15 Analysis 2747 25 Group 2085
6 Program 4259 16 Network 2714 26 Technical 2068
7 Management 3904 17 International 2591 27 Association 2065
8 Test 3579 18 Space 2569 28 Support 2054
9 Science 3451 19 Integrated 2460 29 National 2029
10 Operations 3390 20 Computer 2440 30 Institute 1923
The overall results are roughly similar to those of the first table, with small fluctuations of ranks. Some
differences are significant though. Thus 'Operations' (including 'Operational', etc.) moves from Rank 34 in
the first table to Rank 10 in the second one, 'Processing' (including 'Processor', etc.) from Rank 35 to Rank
14, 'Automatic' (including 'Automated', etc.) from Rank 43 to Rank 22, 'Institute' (including 'Institution',
etc.) from Rank 45 to Rank 30, and 'Technical' (including 'Technique', etc.) from Rank 40 to Rank 26.
Conversely, the largest movement backwards is by 'Support', going from the 16th position to the 28th one.
For the purists, perhaps a couple of additional comments on the details are in order. Caesurae have been
introduced as appropriately as possible, but the compact two-column presentation did not allow to always
cut the words in full respect of the strict rules languages (such as French) have sometimes for this kind of
operations. We had to reach a compromise between these and other constraints such as avoiding overlapping
lines and making the right-hand edges of columns as regular as possible.
Acronyms and abbreviations appear sometimes fully capitalized, sometimes fully in low-case characters, or as
a mixture of both. The per-default rule of this compilation has been to use the fully capitalized (upper-case)
format. Versions of abbreviations and acronyms involving low-case characters have however been listed when
appearing regularly in the literature.
Perhaps as a matter of interest to socio-linguists: as mentioned earlier, acronyms have been routinely ex
tracted from the literature read by astronomers such as periodicals, proceedings, books, more generally
publications of all kinds used in astronomy-related activities at large. As it can be expected, new acronyms
have been frequently found in new projects, but also more frequently in astronomy-related colloquia than
in symposia. This is probably due to the organization format of the respective conferences, symposia being
more "formal" and/or dealing with scientific themes established since a longer time.
A. Heck StarBriefs Plus
viii StarBriefs Plus
When compiling catalogues such as StarGuides and StarBriejs, one cannot help but be impressed by the
very broad spectrum of disciplines to which astronomy and related space sciences are linked, and by the very
rich variety of techniques applied in these fields.
Acknowledgements
The implementations, as databases, of the Star*s Family products by the European Space Agency, the Eu
ropean Southern Observatory, Strasbourg Astronomical Data Centre, and now Kluwer Academic Publishers
have been strong incentives to continue and always improve these time-consuming compilations for the ben
efit of the best possible communication within the astronomical community, as well as between it and the
outside world.
November 2003.
REFERENCES
Albrecht, M.A. & Heck, A.: 1994, StarWords - An On-line Database of Acronyms, Abbreviations, and
Contractions in Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Related Fields, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 103
471.
Heck, A.: 2000, StarBriefs 2001 - A Dictionary of abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols in astronomy,
space sciences and other related fields, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, viii + 814 pp. (ISBN
0-7923-6510-0).
Heck, A.: 2003a, From Early Directories to Current Yellow-Page Services, in Information Handling in
Astronomy- Historical Vistas, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 183-205.
Heck, A.: 2003b, StarGuides Plus- A World-Wide Directory of Organizations in Astronomy and Related
Space Sciences, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, x + 1140 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-1926-2).
Heck, A., Egret, D. & Ochsenbein, F.: 1994, StarWorlds - StarBits (announcement of two databases),
Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 108, 447-448.
Author's address: Andre HECK
Observatoire Astronomique
11, rue de l'Universite
F -67000 Strasbourg
France
Telephone: ( [phone]
Telefax: ( +33) (0 ) 388 508 772
WWW: http:/ /vizier.u-strasbg.fr/""'heck
StarBriefs Plus A. Heck
StarBriefs Plus 1
Dictionary
The asterisks (*) indicate recommended
explanations among several similar ones.
A. Heck StarBriefs Plus
StarBriefs Plus 3
A
a About • Absorptivity • Acceleration • Accepte • Accepted Astronautica Acta • Astronomical Application • Astron
• Acre • Acreage • Acting • Active • Actual • Address omy and Astrophysics • Atlas Agena • Atomic Absorption
• Adjective • Advance • Advanced • Afternoon • Age • Atomic Adsorption • Attack Assessment • Attendance
• Akzeptiert • Alto • Am • Amateur • Ampere • An • Allowance • Audit Agent • Auswii.rtiges Amt • Author's
Annee • Anno • Anonymous • Answer • Ante • Antes Alteration • Auto-Analysis • Auto-Answer • Automatic
• Are • Arrive • Arriving • At • Atto • Auf • Decel Answer • Automobile Association • Autonomous Acqui
eration • Electron Annihilation Operator • Lattice Space sition • A venue of Approach • Size of Battery • Size of
of Si • Linear Absorption Coefficient • Mean Sound Ab Cell
sorption • Radiation Density Constant • Semi-Major Axis
A&AA Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts (periodical
• Sonic Velocity • Specific Acidity • Specific Helmholtz
code)
Free Energy • Speed of Sound • Stefan-Boltzmann Radi
ation Constant • Surface Albedo • Thermal Diffusivity • AAA Absolute Astronomical Accelerometer • Absorption
Universal Affirmative • Year Additivity Assumption • Academic Assistance Access •
A Angstrom Accelerometrie Astronomique Absolue • Acceptance Ap
proving Authority • Achievement in Asia Award (OCPA)
A Abell • Absolute • Absorbance • Absorption • Academi • Acta Astronomica Archive • Advanced Acoustic Array
cian • Academy • Ace • Acre • Acreage • Acting • Active • Advanced Aircraft Analysis • Agricultural Adjustment
• Activity • Additional • Address • Adjutant • Adult • Administration • Agrupaci6n Astron6mica Aragonesa (Sp
Advanced • Aerodynamic Reference Area • Affinity • Air ain) • Agrupaci6n Astr6nomos Aficionados (Venezuela)
• Albedo • Alp • Alpha (international alphabet) • Alt • Agrupaci6n de Aficionados a Ia Astronomia (Uruguay)
• Altesse • Alto • America • American • Ammeter • • Airframe Airworthiness Assurance • Allocation - As
Ampere • Ampere-Turn • Amplitude • Analog • Anal sessment - Analysis • Alternate Assembly Area • Ama
ysis • Anchor • Anemic • Anno • Annual • Anode • teur Astronomers Association (USA-NY) • Amateur As
Anonymous • Answer • Ante • Apogee • Appendix • tronomers of Acadiana (USA-LA) • American Account
April • Area • Ariel • Argon • Arrete • Arroyo • Art ing Association (USA) • American Arbitration Associa
• Arterial • Assistant • Associate • Atom • Atomic • tion (USA) • American Automobile Association (USA) •
Atomic Weight • August • Austral (currency) • Australia Amor-Aten-Apollo • Anaa (Tuamotu Islands) {location
• Australian • Austria (international vehicle registration identifier) • Anno Ante Christum • Apollo-Amor- Aten
code) • Austria (postal country code) • Azimuth • Cross • Artifacts - Agents - Activities • Asociaci6n Argentina
Section • Distance Unit • Equivalent Absorption Area de Astronomia (Argentina) • Assistant Associate Admin
• Five Hundred (Roman numeral) • Helmholtz Free En istrator • Association Astronomique d'Anjou {France) •
ergy • Helmholtz Function • Interstellar Extinction • Lin Association Astronomique de l' Ain {France) • Association
ear Current Density • Magnetic Vector Potential • Mass d'Astronomie de !'Artois (France) • Association of Ama
Number • Nuclear Number • Nucleon Number • Oort's teur Astronomers (USA-TX) • Associazione Acquavivese
Constant of Galactic Rotation • Optical Density • Per Astrofili (Italy) • Astronaut-Actuated Abort • Astron
meance • Richardson Constant • Rotational Constant • omy and Astrophysics Abstracts • A ten -Apollo -Amor •
Ten • Spectral Type • Standard Paper Size • Universal Authentication, Authorization and Accounting • Autho
Affirmative • Work • 500 (Roman numeral) rization Accounting Activity • Author's Argumentation
aa Acting Appointment • Afar (ISO language code) • After Assistant • Automated Airline Assignment • Automatic
Arrival • Always Afloat • Aiios • Approximate Absolute Amplitude Control • Avionics Air Assembly
• Area Administrator • Arithmetic Average • Attendance
AAAA Albany Area Amateur Astronomers (USA-NY) •
Allowance • Author's Alteration
American Association of Amateur Astronomers (USA-TX)
aA anderer Ansicht • Ames Area Amateur Astronomers (USA-lA) • Ars Ad
A-A Air-to-Air Astra Association {Switzerland) • Asociaci6n Argentina
Amigos de Ia Astronomia • Association des Astronomes
A/ A Airplane Avionics • Air-to-Air • Analog-to-Analog • Amateurs d'Auvergne (France) • Astronomische Arbeits
Angular Accelerometer gemeinschaft Aalen eV (Germany) • Atlas Automatise des
A&A Additions & Amendments • Advertise & Award • Absorptions Atmospheriques • Automatized Atmospheric
Astronomy and Astrophysics (periodical code) Absorption Atlas
AA Abbreviated Analysis • Absence Autorisee • Academic AAAAA Anne Arundel Association of Amateur Astrono
Affairs • Accelerated Assembly • Accelerometer Assem mers {USA-MD)
bly • Access Authorization • Accreditation Authority •
AAAAT Association des Astronomes Amateurs Abitibi-Te
Achieved Ability • Achieved Availability • Acquisition
miscamingue {Canada-QC)
Activity • Acte Authentique • Acting Appointment •
Adjoint Administratif • Administrative Area • Admin AAACE American Association for Adult and Continuing
istrative Assistant • Administrative Authority • Advance Education (USA)
Agreement • Advertise and Award • Affirmative Action
AAAD Amateur Astronomers Association of Delhi (India)
• Affordability Analysis • After Arrival • Age Allowance
• Agent Administratif • Aircraft Availability • Airplane AAAE Alliance of Associations for the Advancement of Ed
Avionics • Air-to-Air • Aitreya Aranyaka • Algorithmic ucation (USA) • American Association for Adult Edu
Architecture • Allied Affairs • Altezas • Analysis of Al cation (USA) • American Association of Academic Edi
ternatives • Angle of Arrival • Angular Accelerometer • tors (USA) • American Association of Airport Executives
Angular Aperture • Antiaircraft • Antiproton Accumu {USA)
lator • Application Association • Appointing Authority
AAAF Association Aeronautique et Astronautique de France
• Approval Authority • Approximate Absolute • Apti
tude Area • Ardennes-Astronomie (France) • Area Ad AAAI American Association for Artificial Intelligence (USA)
ministrator • Arithmetic Average • Arrival Angle • Ar • Association of Australian Aerospace Industries
tificial Agent • Arts Appliques • Assembly Area • Assis
AAAL American Academy of Arts and Letters {USA)
tant Administrator • Assistant Astronomer • Associate
Administrator • Associate Astronomer • Associate in Ac AAAOA Amateur Astronomers As Outreach Ambassadors
counting • Associate of Arts • Astrograph Astrometry • {project)
A. Heck StarBriefs Plus