Saint—Abbreviate to St.: St. Louis University. But spell out Fort, South, etc., in geographic names. Mount or Mt. are acceptable.
saran—Lower case is acceptable (no longer a registered trademark).
satellites—Do not italicize names. Solar Maximum Mission satellite, International Ultraviolet Explorer, Nimbus, Nimbus-7, Skylab.
satellite-based imagery—when not a photographic representation, use this style (adding dates when known): A visualization of satellite data gathered January 1–20, 2005. [08/05]
scale—large-scale and small-scale (adj.); also frontal-scale, synoptic-scale, and full-scale (adj.); but mesoscale and microscale; where necessary for space or flow: meso- and macroscale
Schweizer 2-32 sailplane—is the model name of the NOAA-NCAR sailplane. (Its name is Explorer.)
sea breeze (adj.)—no hyphen
sea ice (n), sea-ice (adj.) [07/07]
sea level (n), sea-level (adj.)
sea-surface temperature—always hyphenated. [08/01]
seminar and conference titles (in references)—Use initial caps and italics for specific titles: Weather Balloons and the Cold War. For descriptive titles, do not italicize: Third Annual Conference on Weather Balloons.
September 11—use this style. For quoted speech, use "9/11" for the spoken "nine-eleven" or "nine-one-one." [01-03]
Sr.—see Jr.
series commas—Use a comma after each item but the last in a series of three or more.
ship names—in italics, but preceding abbreviation is roman: U.S.S. Discoverer
SI—Système Internationale, roughly equivalent to the metric system; use these units whenever possible. See SI list in The Chicago Manual of Style.
Solid-state Storage Device (SSD)—copyrighted by Cray in this form. (Avoid confusion by identifying it as the CRAY Solid-state Storage Device.)
solidus—Use only one in such expressions as erg/(cm2 s) (i.e., not erg/cm2/s). Use "UCAR and NCAR" when possible. Omit from NASA Goddard, NOAA WPL, etc. This symbol translates as "or"— if you mean "and," use a hyphen: Raleigh-Durham, NOT Raleigh/Durham. [revised 2/00]
Southern Oscillation—capped; frequently, El Niño/Southern Oscillation
space shuttle—Italicize names. Challenger, Discovery
spaces between sentences—Use two spaces between sentences in documents produced on the Macintosh. For typeset documents, the spacing may be decided by the designer and editor.
spelling—Currently, we follow (in this order) The American Heritage Dictionary, Third College Edition; Webster's Third New International Dictionary; and McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms as a supplement. When two spellings or plurals are acceptable, use the preferred version.
spin-down—Hyphenate as noun or adjective (astrophysical usage).
sponsorship statement—All NCAR publications should state "The National Center for Atmospheric Research is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship of the National Science Foundation and other agencies." Add for anything with science content: "Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any of UCAR's sponsors." Brochures, pamphlets, and news releases should also include "UCAR [or NCAR] is an Equal Opportunity employer."
states—Write out full name in text. Abbreviate in lists or tables, using the list in State Abbreviations. O.K. to abbreviate designations of members of Congress, but use the long form after the hyphen: Tim Wirth (D-Colo.) See also "addresses." Following the list in The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, we may omit state names after the following cities:
| Atlanta Baltimore Boston Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Dallas Denver Detroit |
Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Los Angeles Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis New Orleans New York |
Oklahoma City Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis Salt Lake City San Diego San Francisco Seattle Washington |
steady-state (adj.)
storm scale—two words. Explain for most audiences.
StratoFilm—two caps, written up, trademark
streamflow—one word. [3/00]
stream function—two words, not hyphenated as n. or adj.
Styrofoam—trademark, initial cap
subcommittee (governmental)—lower case. Always name the committee (upper case) that the subcommittee belongs to: Wrong: He is chair of the House subcommittee on domestic and international monetary policy. Right: He is chair of the House Banking and Financial Services subcommittee on domestic and international monetary policy.
subgrid-scale—adj.
system names—use initial caps: Advanced Coronal Observing System. See also "instrument names." [2/00]
Sun—always upper case. See also "Earth." [08/01]
Sun-angle ( adj.), Sun angle (n.)
super minus—Convert to solidus construction whenever possible: erg/(cm2 s), not erg cm-2 s-1
