Technology glossary

Algorithmic Management

The use of software and data-driven systems to allocate work, set targets, monitor performance, evaluate workers, determine pay, or impose rewards and penalties. It can improve coordination but may reduce transparency and worker autonomy when decisions are difficult to understand or challenge.

Alignment Tax

An informal term for the performance, cost, latency, flexibility, or development trade-offs introduced by making an AI system better follow intended goals, safety rules, or human preferences. The size and even existence of the trade-off depend on the method, task, and metric.

Allotransplantation

The transplantation of cells, tissues or organs between genetically different members of the same species, such as a kidney donated by one person to another.

Almanac Data

GNSS almanac data gives a receiver coarse orbit and status information for the satellite constellation. It helps the receiver predict which satellites should be visible and acquire their signals more efficiently.

Aminoacylation

The enzyme-driven process that attaches the correct amino acid to a transfer RNA before that tRNA delivers it during protein synthesis.

Anisotropic Thermal Transport

Heat flow whose speed or efficiency depends on direction within a material or structure. Crystal orientation, layered interfaces and defects can make heat travel more easily along one path than another.

Annualized Exacerbation Rate(AER)

A trial measure that expresses the expected number of disease flare-ups per patient-year. Statistical models adjust for follow-up time so groups can be compared even when participants are observed for different lengths of time.

Annular Eclipse

A solar eclipse in which the Moon is too far from Earth in its orbit to fully cover the Sun, leaving a bright ring, or annulus, of sunlight visible around the Moon's silhouette.

Anomaly Detection

Identifying data patterns or events that differ significantly from expected behavior.

Anti-Jam Navigation

Anti-jam navigation uses signal design, antennas, receiver processing and alternative sensors to maintain positioning and timing when radio-frequency interference attempts to overwhelm satellite-navigation signals.

Anticipatory Planning

Planning a system's next action before its current action has finished, using a prediction of the future state.

Anticyclonic Vortex

A rotating region of atmospheric flow whose circulation is opposite to that of a cyclone in the same hemisphere.

Apparent Magnitude

A scale astronomers use to measure how bright an object appears from Earth, where lower numbers mean brighter, and each five-step drop represents a hundredfold increase in brightness.

Aqueous Alteration

Chemical and mineralogical changes that occur when liquid water interacts with rock, dust, or other solid material. In meteorites and planetary bodies, these changes can reveal the past presence, temperature, and chemistry of water.

Aqueous Zinc-Iodine Battery(AZIB)

A rechargeable battery that uses zinc and iodine as active materials with a water-based electrolyte. The chemistry can reduce flammability compared with batteries using organic electrolytes, but iodine migration, zinc corrosion and scale-up remain important engineering challenges.

Arrhythmia

An abnormal heart rhythm, such as beating too fast, too slow, or irregularly, which can be harmless or a sign of an underlying heart problem.

Artificial Light at Night(ALAN)

Outdoor or indoor light produced by human technology during naturally dark hours. Its brightness, direction, timing, and spectrum can alter sleep, navigation, feeding, reproduction, and ecological interactions in humans and wildlife.

Artificial Skyglow

The brightening of the night sky caused by artificial light scattered in the atmosphere. It can extend far beyond cities, obscure faint stars, disrupt ecosystems and human sleep patterns, and reduce the quality of astronomical observations.

Assembloid

A laboratory model made by joining two or more organoids so researchers can study how different tissue regions connect, migrate and signal to one another.

Assigned Representative(AR)

A person authorized to act for a manufacturer inside an electronic regulatory process. In ENISA's reporting platform, assigned representatives register the organization, submit notifications and manage follow-up information.

Assisted GPS(A-GPS)

Assisted GPS (A-GPS) combines satellite positioning with information supplied by a mobile network or other data connection, helping a phone locate satellites and calculate its position faster, especially when signals are weak.

Assistive Dressing Device

A tool or robotic system designed to help a person put on or remove clothing when mobility, strength, coordination, or reach is limited. It may provide physical guidance, gripping, positioning, or automated assistance while prioritizing comfort and safety.

Astronomical Light Pollution

Artificial light that interferes with observing the night sky by increasing background brightness, creating glare, or producing moving trails and reflections. Sources include outdoor lighting, illuminated structures, aircraft, and satellites.

Asynchronous Robot Control

Asynchronous robot control is a control approach in which sensing, computation, and physical motion overlap in time instead of occurring as a strictly sequential cycle, reducing idle pauses between actions.

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation(AMOC)

A large system of Atlantic Ocean currents that carries warm surface water north and colder, denser water back south at depth, redistributing heat and helping keep Western Europe's climate relatively mild.

Atmospheric Escape

The loss of atmospheric gases from a planet into space.

Atmospheric Predictability

The degree to which the future state of the atmosphere can be estimated from its present state. It is limited by observation errors, imperfect models and the atmosphere's chaotic behavior, which causes small uncertainties to grow over time.

Atmospheric Spectroscopy

The analysis of how an atmosphere absorbs, emits, or scatters light at different wavelengths to infer its composition, temperature, pressure, clouds, and motion. It is used to study Earth, Solar System bodies, and exoplanets.

Atomic Clock

An atomic clock measures time using the stable resonance frequency of atoms. GPS satellites carry atomic clocks because tiny timing errors translate directly into large positioning errors for receivers on Earth.

Attack Path

An attack path is the sequence of weaknesses, permissions, credentials, systems, and trust relationships an attacker can chain together to move from an initial foothold toward a target.