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.

The oceans have absorbed almost all of the excess heat generated by increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and a large fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, with profound implications for ecosystems and the climate system. Ship-based hydrographic surveys are the only current means for simultaneously measuring physical, biological, and biogeochemical properties of the global oceans from the surface to the seafloor and are a crucial resource for understanding ocean change and its role in the climate system. Building on global hydrographic surveys underway since the...

Atmospheric composition and circulation over the tropical western Pacific Ocean play important roles in the Earth’s climate system. In this remote region, rising air heated by some of the warmest seawater in the world moves gases produced by ocean organisms and other chemicals to higher altitudes, where water vapor and ozone exert their strongest influence on the climate. As the climate warms, the intensity of this transport mechanism will increase and may contribute to large-scale changes in atmospheric composition. Details of these dynamics, including how they vary over time and space,...

Recent evidence has revealed that the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are not as static as once thought. Accelerated ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet, disintegrating ice shelves around Antarctica, and signs that several marine-terminating glaciers in Antarctica have begun an irreversible retreat all signal that changes are taking place faster than was thought possible. Ice sheets are projected to contribute significantly to global sea-level rise, which poses dramatic risks for coastal communities and island nations worldwide. In response to these rapid changes, several USGCRP...

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Highlights

Measuring Change at Sea

Connecting the Remote Ocean to Global Climate

Modeling Ice Sheets and Sea-Level Rise