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Highlights

Since 1989, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has submitted annual reports to Congress called Our Changing Planet. The reports describe the status of USGCRP research activities, provide progress updates, and document recent accomplishments.

In particular, Our Changing Planet highlights progress and accomplishments in interagency activities. These highlights represent the broad spectrum of USGCRP activities that extend from Earth system observations, modeling, and fundamental research through synthesis and assessment, decision support, education, and public engagement.

Carbon Cycle, Arctic

Scientists investigate the effects of carbon emissions from thawing permafrost soils

Methane emitted from thawing permafrost below an Arctic thermokarst lake is trapped in bubbles of many different sizes and shapes as the ice grows during the winter.
Long-frozen northern soils known as permafrost contain one of the world’s largest stores of organic carbon. This reservoir is stable while soils are frozen, but as permafrost thaws, decomposition of biomass by microbes produces the heat-trapping gases carbon dioxide and methane, returning soil carbon to the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change. Permafrost carbon stores are expected to be increasingly vulnerable to decomposition as the climate continues to change, leading to a feedback cycle of further warming and permafrost thaw.[1]...
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Antarctica, Oceans, Physical Climate, Observations

Unprecedented observations in the Southern Ocean help improve global climate models

A researcher launches a radiosonde instrument attached to a weather balloon to capture detailed atmospheric data.
The Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica is the stormiest place on Earth, marked by heavy cloud cover that helps determine how much of the sun’s energy reaches Earth’s surface. Due in part to the scarcity of field data from the region, current climate models have difficulty reproducing the behavior of clouds over the Southern Ocean, which in turn affects how well they can simulate current and future climate. Motivated by these data limitations, an international multi-agency effort collected atmospheric and oceanographic data via ship-, aircraft-, and island-based instrumentation in a...
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Oceans

Researchers reconstruct a new history of ocean warming

Globally, average sea level has risen over the past several decades as ocean waters have warmed. While the ocean as a whole has absorbed a huge amount of heat from the warming atmosphere, ocean currents transport that heat differently across regions, contributing to significant regional variations in the amount of sea level change. Understanding changes in ocean heat content and the role of currents in shaping patterns of warming is critical to assessing current and future global and regional climate change, sea level rise, and coastal flooding risk.[1]...
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Data & Tools

New data infrastructure helps build a virtual ecosystem of Earth science information

The ability to archive and share datasets generated by field, experimental, and modeling activities is a critical component of Earth system and global change research. Several recent interagency efforts aim to support advances in global change data access, synthesis, and use. 
 
DOE recently launched the Environmental Systems Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE), a publicly accessible archive of Earth and environmental science data generated by DOE-supported ecosystems research...
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Social Science

A collaboration identifies pathways to enhance social science integration in federal global change research

Through its Social Science Coordinating Committee (SSCC), USGCRP works to integrate social science methods, findings, and disciplinary perspectives into federal global change research programs. The social, behavioral, and economic sciences provide critical insights on the drivers and impacts of global change and inform mitigation, adaptation, and resilience decisions.
 
In February 2019, in collaboration with the National Academies’ Board on Environmental Change and Society, the SSCC convened a seminar entitled “Climate Resilience Pathways and Social Science...
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Observations, Extreme Events

Interagency data products and research inform hurricane response and recovery in the Carolinas

This image of Pee Dee River in South Carolina was captured by NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument aboard a September 17, 2018 science flight.
Hurricane Florence struck the Carolinas on September 14, 2018, causing widespread flooding and damage. In the aftermath of the storm, NASA deployed airborne radar to map floodwaters threatening the region, supplying federal, state, and local agencies with information critical to disaster response efforts. 
 
Airborne radar is able to “see” through cloud cover to image the ground below during day and night and can map flooding occurring under...
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Ecosystems & Biodiversity, Adaptation

Drought and wildfire research supports adaptation planning in the western United States

A natural-color image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite on August 27, 2017, shows dozens of wildfires burning in the western United States.
Wildfires affect communities throughout the United States each year, threatening lives, property and infrastructure, and ecosystems.[1] Understanding the climatic conditions that influence wildfire patterns can improve our ability to predict the occurrence and severity of future wildfires, and ultimately support the development of effective adaptation strategies. 
 
In response to this need, multiple programs within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Department of the Interior’s...
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Coasts, Human Health

A new forecast tool helps the public avoid toxic algal blooms

An image from a new pilot smartphone-based information tool that alerts users in Florida’s central Gulf Coast to potential respiratory hazards from toxic algal blooms.
In the Gulf of Mexico, toxic algal bloom outbreaks (or red tides) occur primarily during the late summer and early fall, and can be harmful to people and ecosystems. One of the most severe red tide outbreaks in a decade hit Florida’s Gulf Coast throughout the summer and early fall of 2018, with widespread adverse impacts that prompted the governor to declare a State of Emergency in mid-August. 
 
In October 2018, a new pilot smartphone-based information resource developed by NASA, NOAA, and state and local partners began alerting users to red tide risks...
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Coasts, Adaptation

Flood mapping helps planners visualize the future of California’s coast

A king tide flooded parts of Imperial Beach, California in December 2018.
U.S. coastal communities are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise, tidal flooding, higher storm surge, coastal erosion, and other climate-related impacts.[1] To help communities in southern California plan for rising water levels, a NASA DEVELOP team collaborated with the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, in partnership with the California Coastal Commission, to create detailed projections of flooding from sea level rise and coastal storms along the...
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National Climate Assessment

Assessment products outline climate-related risks and response actions

Increasing heavy rains are leading to more soil erosion and nutrient loss on midwestern cropland.
USGCRP completed the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) in November 2018 with the release of NCA4 Volume II (Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States). Building on an assessment of observed and projected changes in the physical climate system released as Volume I of NCA4 (Climate Science Special Report) in 2017, Volume II focuses on climate-related risks to systems that support our well-being and economy. 
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