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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.

Observations, Extreme Events

Two Cutting-Edge Missions to Measure Global Change

This frame from an animation of GPM data shows the internal structure of Hurricane Arthur off the coast of South Carolina. This event marks the first time that a satellite has followed a hurricane through its full life cycle with high-resolution measureme

In 2014, NASA launched two new satellite missions that will enable fundamental advancements in our understanding of climate and global change. The Global Precipitation Measurement satellite, launched in February in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), carries state-of-the-art instrumentation that will collect unparalleled observations of rain and snow worldwide every three hours. Such high-resolution data will improve forecasts of extreme weather and climate events, lead to a better understanding of the global water and energy

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Observations, Modeling

DYNAMO: Linking Observations and Models to Predict Near-Term Climate

The NASA GEOS5 model has made significant progress in simulating the MJO, demonstrated by how closely its output (right panel) visually resembles satellite observation data (left panel; in both panels, MJO events are represented as lines of green, red, a

Predicting climate conditions anywhere from two weeks to a season in advance is critical for making informed decisions and safeguarding infrastructure across various sectors of the U.S. economy, including water resources, energy supply, public safety, and agriculture, among many others.

USGCRP agencies are supporting improved climate forecasts on these relatively short timescales through field campaigns coupled with model development and analysis efforts. DOE, NASA, NOAA, NSF, and DOD’

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Observations

Climate Change Here and Now: The Third National Climate Assessment

In May 2014, delivering on the Global Change Research Act of 1990 and the President’s Climate Action Plan, USGCRP released the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA), the most comprehensive, authoritative, and transparent scientific report on U.S. climate-change impacts to date. The report confirms that climate change, once considered a distant threat, is already affecting every region of the country and key sectors of the economy, and will continue to do so into the future. The release of the report garnered much attention nationwide, including among stakeholder

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Observations, Adaptation

Supporting Federal Climate Preparedness with Resources and Data

Under Executive Orders (EO) 13514 and 13653, President Obama directed Federal agencies to evaluate and prepare for climate-related risks to ensure that they can continue to meet their missions and serve the American public as climate changes. A key component of USGCRP’s work to prepare the Nation for global change involves informing Federal preparedness and resilience efforts with resources built on sound scientific understanding.

To further support these efforts, USGCRP recently released an easy-to-access, web-based collection of resources to help Federal

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Observations, Modeling

Tracing Global Change Science Back to the Source

This diagram shows how, using the Global Change Information System, a user can trace an image from the Third National Climate Assessment back to its original source and supporting data. (Credit: Adapted from Goldstein et al., 2013)

USGCRP’s novel Global Change Information System builds on prior agency investments and is designed to support traceability between multiple environmental data streams—such as observations from sensors and output from models—and the resulting scientific reports. This system creates an open environment for users to access machine-readable information and trace user-friendly products back to the supporting science. As an important first step and proof-of-concept, the GCIS provides this

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Observations, Modeling

Empowering the Nation with Climate Data

In March 2014, USGCRP helped support the launch of the Climate Data Initiative, a key component of the President’s Climate Action Plan. The Climate Data Initiative brings together open government data with commitments from the private and philanthropic sectors to develop data-driven tools that communities and businesses across America need to plan for the impacts of climate change.

With the launch of the Climate Data Initiative, data from USGCRP agencies—including NOAA, NASA, USGS, and DOD—and other Federal entities are

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Observations

A Global Carbon Atlas for Educators, Policymakers, and the Public

The Global Carbon Atlas, released in late 2013, is an interactive web-based platform designed to communicate information about the global carbon cycle to educators, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, the general public, and the scientific community. The Atlas allows users to explore, visualize, and interpret global and regional carbon data related to human activities and natural processes, with the goal of sharing knowledge and supporting decisions to limit and cope with human-induced climate change.

The Global Carbon Atlas was made possible

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Physical Climate, Scenarios, Observations, Modeling, Adaptation

GlobalChange.gov Reloaded: USGCRP's New Website

With the release of the Third National Climate Assessment (see related Highlight 9) came a spike in public demand for information about climate change, its impacts on America, and USGCRP. The Program met this press of interest with a new user-friendly, public-oriented website that launched concurrently with the report’s release. The site deploys the Third National Climate Assessment in an interactive, shareable format. It also provides a dynamic suite of resources and information spanning the breadth of USGCRP and serving user groups including scientists, decision

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Observations, Modeling

Supporting Global Change Research Through Satellite Missions: A Look Ahead

Preparing equipment for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission. (Source: NASA)

Overview
A series of Earth observation missions planned by NASA and partners for FY 2014 will contribute fundamentally to advancing our understanding of global change. Such missions are foundational to USGCRP research and are made possible by a sustained Program emphasis in instrumentation development. The planned FY 2014 missions are described below.

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