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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. 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.

Indicators

Crowdsourcing Climate: Citizen Science and the National Climate Assessment

Citizen science refers to the engagement of non-professional volunteers in scientific investigations—asking questions, collecting data, or interpreting results. This approach can be especially useful in tracking environmental changes. (Source: NPS)

Citizen science—or the engagement of volunteers in scientific investigations—is a fast-growing field. By collecting data on natural phenomena such as the timing of bird migrations and plant flowering—sometimes from their own backyard—citizen scientists provide essential baseline information about key environmental indicators, in addition to strengthening their own awareness of and connection to their local environment. Citizen science has long been an important component of scientific endeavors and public engagement at USGCRP agencies such as DOI (particularly NPS and

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International

Engaging the Philanthropic Sector to Meet Climate Challenges

Philanthropic organizations can play a pivotal role in how communities strategize around education, housing, transportation, public health, and other social issues that link to the environment. These organizations are in a unique position to build synergy between Federal, local, and private efforts to improve climate literacy and help communities minimize and prepare for the consequences of climate change. As part of an ongoing tri-agency collaboration, program managers from NSF, NOAA, and NASA have been acting as government liaisons in bi-monthly meetings

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Modeling

Seasonal Prediction Systems: From Research to Operations

Warm colors on this map show where output from NOAA's GFDL-FLOR model correlates positively (yellow = strongest correlation) with seasonal observations of tropical cyclone activity, demonstrating the model's capacity for predicting such phenomena. (Source

Predicting climate on a seasonal basis can benefit decision makers in key sectors like energy, water resources, and agriculture, among others. A number of USGCRP agencies are working to improve the Nation’s seasonal forecasting capacity through major investments in innovative climate models that can bridge the needs of atmospheric research and operational forecasts. As one example, a new model developed by NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, known as

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Arctic

Predicting Changes in Arctic Sea Ice

Sea ice in the Arctic fluctuates from year to year, but the annual minimum extent (measured each year in September) has decreased overall since measurements began in the late 1970s. Changes in sea ice have implications both for the environment and for hum

Although the volume and surface extent of Arctic sea ice varies between seasons and years, observations show a long-term down-ward trend over the last three decades. Variability in Arctic sea ice is an important indicator of global climate change, and also has implications for increasing human activity in the Arctic. In an effort to improve forecasts of Arctic sea ice on seasonal to interannual time scales, the Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) was recently created with support from several USGCRP

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International, Arctic

Arctic Observations to Meet Scientific and Societal Needs

Advancing science in the Arctic is crucial to understanding global climate dynamics, supporting policy decisions, and managing nationally and internationally important resources. In coordination with the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) and USGEO, USGCRP member agencies observe and monitor the Arctic environment to understand the impacts of global change on this ecologically, culturally, and economically significant region. Polar orbiting satellites provide data that are combined with information from surface-based measurement networks, airborne and

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Physical Climate

Extending Climate Records Beyond Instrumental Measurements

Paleoclimate studies extend records of climate beyond the time period for which we have instrumental measurements. Such research not only answers questions about what Earth was like in the past, but also provides context for the climate changes that we are experiencing today and informs our understanding of how climate is likely to change in the future. In 2013, an international team of researchers published the most comprehensive reconstruction of past temperature changes ever generated at the continental scale.

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Oceans, Physical Climate, Modeling

Modeling Pollution to Understand Localized Climate Trends

Modeled (top panel) and observed (bottom two panels) changes in atmospheric aerosol loads between 1980 and 2000. A decrease over Europe and North Amer- ica (blue) and an increase over southeastern and eastern Asia (red)—evident in all three panels—contrib

Pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels and wood has contributed to climate change in complex ways, with some pollutants causing cooling and others causing warming, accompanied by effects on patterns of atmospheric circulation and precipitation. To better understand these complex relationships, the Atmospheric Chemistry Climate Model Intercomparison Project, part of the international 5th-phase Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), conducted a series of pollution-focused modeling experiments to reveal spatial patterns, sectoral influences,

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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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Oceans

Building Capacity Among Climate-Change Interpreters

An interpreter talks to aquarium visitors. (Credit: NNOCCI)

Informal education settings such as zoos, aquariums, and parks play an essential part in conveying science to broad public audiences. USGCRP agencies work together to support initiatives that build capacity for communicating the science and impacts of climate change among interpreters in these important educational environments. For example, the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI), funded by NSF and led by the New England Aquarium (NEAQ), comprises a partnership of aquariums, zoos, parks, academic institutions, and other non-

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Water Resources, Extreme Events

Drought Research to Support Management and Preparedness

The NMME (yellow column) is a seasonal forecasting system that combines individual models (purple columns N1-N6) to produce more accurate predictions of climate. In forecasts of precipitation (top two panels) and temperature (bottom two panels)—key factor

Drought is a significant hazard for the United States, with potentially severe and long-lasting impacts on the Nation’s economy and food and water supplies. USGCRP agencies are advancing our understanding of the causes and consequences of drought, an FY 2015 interagency research priority (see Section 4). They are also collaborating in efforts to support drought preparedness and recovery, such as the National Drought Resilience Partnership (a deliverable of the President’s Climate Action Plan) and the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).

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