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. Highlights describe the state of science at the time of publication of each yearly report, and may not reflect more recent advances in understanding. The date of publication of the source report is noted on each highlight page.

As part of its international mandate, USGCRP builds and sustains partnerships to promote knowledge-sharing that supports research, data collection, and assessment capabilities in developing countries.

In 2021, USGCRP initiated a new regional engagement effort, the Initiative for Enhancing Capacity for Climate Risk Assessment and Catalyzing Partnerships to Inform Decisions in Latin America and the Caribbean, or LACI. Its overarching vision is to provide opportunities for partnerships among Caribbean, Latin American, and...

As the climate changes, hotter-than-usual days and nights are becoming more common, and heat waves are expected to become more frequent and intense. Cities experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas–known as the urban heat island effect–and residents often face higher health risks during extreme heat events. To help monitor changes in the health challenges associated with heat waves in urban areas, the USGS and EPA are developing data, analyses, and indicators for characterizing trends in the urban heat island effect...

In 2021, USGCRP’s Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health (CCHHG) supported the global GEO Health Community of Practice in holding a global conversation on the use of Earth observations and climate information for decision-making around COVID-19, and in convening regionally focused workshops on the use of observations for health in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The GEO Health Community of Practice is a network of governments,...

Throughout 2021, the interagency Sea Level Rise Task Force, under the auspices of USGCRP’s CoastsIG and the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, engaged in extensive collaboration to produce the 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report, which provides the most up-to-date sea level rise projections for all U.S. states and territories by decade for the next 100 years and beyond (Sweet et al., 2022). The report projects that sea levels along the U.S. coastline will rise an additional 10–12...

Houses affected by coastal floodwaters are shown, with varying degrees of damage.

. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States, creating widespread coastal flooding and over $60 billion in economic damages. A recent modeling study funded by NASA, NOAA, and NSF, with contributions from DOE and the USGS, found that the impacts of Hurricane Sandy were significantly worsened by sea level rise attributable to climate change (Strauss et al., 2021). Researchers simulated water levels and damages both as they occurred and as they would have occurred across a range of lower sea levels, showing...

A line graph shows a declining trend in average September sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean over the past three decades, from 2.7 million square miles in 1979 to 1.9 million square miles in 2021. A visualization of the Arctic Ocean shows a smaller sea ic

The CICE model simulates changes to Arctic sea ice and its interactions with the polar environment over seasonal to decadal timescales. The model’s development and maintenance have been led and coordinated by DOE since the early 1990s, with contributions from NOAA, NASA, NSF, ONR, and many other participants. CICE and its support infrastructure are the global standard for sea ice modeling for multiple applications, including scientific research, climate...

A visualization of atmospheric moisture data collected by satellite shows a concentrated stream of moisture stretching from the tropical Pacific Ocean to the West Coast of the United States, landing primarily in California.

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that move moist air from the tropics to higher latitudes, producing heavy rain and snow upon landfall. They provide much of the rainfall in the western United States and are frequently associated with extreme weather across large parts of the country. The international Atmospheric River Tracking Method Intercomparison Project (ARTMIP) is seeking to improve understanding of the linkages between climate change and atmospheric rivers. ARTMIP...

Since 2015, USGCRP’s IGIM has convened an annual U.S. Climate Modeling Summit. The Summit brings together representatives from the U.S. CMIP-class climate model development centers and from operational climate prediction programs, with the goal of improving the coordination and communication of national climate modeling goals. Alongside many of the summits, a technical workshop focused on a high-priority modeling topic facing the U.S. and international modeling...

Ecosystems on land store large amounts of the carbon emitted by human activities, and protecting and restoring forests and other vegetation are important tools in slowing climate change. However, there are large uncertainties in global estimates of the balance between how much carbon ecosystems store and how much they release into the atmosphere due to deforestation, wildfire, and other disturbances. To improve estimates of the global carbon balance, NASA, USDA-FS, and other contributors assessed changes in the amount...

Accurate measurements of soil moisture conditions can provide valuable inputs for agricultural monitoring and planning, weather prediction, and drought and flood early warning. Working with the USDA and other partners, the multi-agency National Integrated Drought Information System is leading an effort to establish a national soil moisture monitoring network. The NCSMMN is a multi-agency, multi-institutional initiative to integrate soil...

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Highlights

LACI

Monitoring and assessing urban heat island variations and effects

Coordinating climate and health research and applications

Updated interagency sea level rise scenarios

Modeling study shows that Hurricane Sandy damages were worsened by climate change

Predicting Arctic sea ice change

Advancing modeling of a key source of extreme precipitation (ARTMIP)

7th U.S. Climate Modeling Summit

Assessing changes in global terrestrial live biomass over the 21st century

National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN)