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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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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2), released by USGCRP in November 2018, is a state-of-the-science assessment of the carbon cycle in North America and its connection to climate and society. Authored by more than 200 experts from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, SOCCR2 focuses on U.S. and North American carbon cycle processes and their interactions with global-scale carbon budgets and climate change impacts over the last decade.
The report includes an assessment of...
SERVIR is a joint initiative between NASA and USAID that develops demand-driven services, tools, and training for decision-makers in more than 50 countries. By connecting USAID’s development network with NASA’s science, geospatial technologies, and extensive satellite data, SERVIR helps strengthen local capacity to integrate science and technology into decision-making.
Since 2004, SERVIR has collaborated with leading regional organizations in the developing world to help people and institutions...
USGCRP agencies and interagency groups played a leading role in the development of a Belmont Forum international Collaborative Research Action (CRA) launched in April 2019, focused on issues at the intersection of climate, environment, and human health.
In addition to an international scoping workshop organized by the Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health (CCHHG) and International Activities Interagency Working Group (IAIWG) in April 2018, USGCRP member agencies (including NIH, NOAA, and NSF) participated in a year-long,...