| AAP | Astrophysical and Application Product |
| AGN | Active Galactic Nuclei |
| AOT | Astronomical Observation Template |
| ATCA | Australia Telescope Compact Array |
| BG | Big Grains |
| CAM | caméra à bord d'ISO |
| CFHT | Canada France Hawaii Telescope |
| CFRS | Canada France Redshift Survey |
| CIB | Cosmic Infrared Background |
| COBE | Cosmic Background Explorer |
| CMB | Cosmic Microwave Background |
| CSO | Caltech Submillimeter Observatory |
| DEA | Diplôme d'études approfondies (troisième cycle) |
| DEUG | Diplôme d'études universitaire général (premier cycle) |
| DIRBE | Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment, à bord de COBE |
| DMR | Differential Microwave Radiometer, à bord de COBE |
| DR | Destructive Readout |
| DRAO | Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory |
| EBL | Extragalactic Background Light |
| ELAIS | European Large Area ISO Survey |
| ERD | Edited Raw Data |
| ESA | European Space Agency |
| FCS | Fine Calibration Source, dans PHOT |
| FIRAS | Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer, à bord de COBE |
| FIRBACK | Far Infrared Background |
| FIRST | Far Infrared and Submillimeter Space Telescope |
| FN1 | champ FIRBACK North 1 |
| FN2 | champ FIRBACK North 2 |
| FSM | champ FIRBACK South Marano |
| HDF | Hubble Deep Field |
| HFI | High Frequency Instrument, à bord de Planck |
| HIFI | Heterodyne Instrument for FIRST |
| HST | Hubble Space Telescope |
| IAP | Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris |
| IAS | Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale |
| IDL | Interactive Data Langage |
| LF | Fonction de Luminosité |
| IR | infrarouge |
| IRAC | Infrared Array Camera, à bord de SIRTF |
| IRAM | Institut de Radio-Astronomie Millimétrique |
| IRAS | Infrared Astronomical Satellite |
| IRIS | Infrared Imaging Surveyor |
| IRTS | Infrared Telescope in Space |
| IRS | Infrared Spectrometer, à bord de SIRTF |
| ISO | Infrared Space Observatory |
| ISOCAM | voir CAM |
| ISOPHOT | voir PHOT |
| JCMT | James Clerk Maxwell Telescope |
| KAO | Kuiper Airborne Observatory |
| LFI | Low Frequency Instrument, à bord de Planck |
| LWS | Long Wavelength Spectrometer, à bord d'ISO |
| MAMBO | Max-Planck Millimeter Bolometer Camera |
| MIPS | Multiband Imaging Photometer for SIRTF |
| NASA | National Aeronotics and Space Administration |
| NDR | Non Destructive Readout |
| OTAC | ISO Observing Time Allocation Committee |
| PACS | Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer, à bord de FIRST |
| PAH | Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons |
| PHOT | photomètre à bord d'ISO |
| PIA | Phot Interactive Analysis |
| PSF | Point Spread Function |
| SCP | Signal per Chopper Plateau |
| SCUBA | Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array |
| SHARC | Submillimeter High-Angular Resolution Camera |
| SIRTF | Space Infrared Telescope Facility |
| SOFIA | Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy |
| SPIRE | Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, à bord de FIRST |
| SPD | Standard Processed Data |
| SRD | Signal per Ramp Data |
| SWS | Short Wavelength Spectrometer, à bord d'ISO |
| submm | submillimétrique |
| ULIRG | Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxy |
| UV | ultraviolet |
| VLA | Very Large Array |
| VLT | Very Large Telescope |
| VSG | Very Small Grains |
| WFPC2 | Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, à bord de HST |
| WIRE | Wide Field Infrared Explorer |
| WHAM | Wisconsin H Alpha Mapper |