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.

USGCRP coordinates and supports the engagement of the U.S. science community in major international assessments on global change science, including those conducted by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), as well as science panels informing the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer process.

International assessment reports provide policymakers with regular updates on the state of...

Methane emitted from thawing permafrost below an Arctic thermokarst lake is trapped in bubbles of many different sizes and shapes as the ice grows during the winter.

Long-frozen northern soils known as permafrost contain one of the world’s largest stores of organic carbon. This reservoir is stable while soils are frozen, but as permafrost thaws, decomposition of biomass by microbes produces the heat-trapping gases carbon dioxide and methane, returning soil carbon to the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change. Permafrost carbon stores are expected to be increasingly vulnerable to decomposition as the climate continues to change, leading to a feedback cycle of further warming and permafrost thaw.^[1]...

The 2017 annual minimum ozone detection of 131 Dobson Units over Antarctica was observed on October 9, 2017, about a week later than usual, indicating that ozone levels may be starting to recover.

Interagency collaboration sustains long-term measurements that track the health of the ozone layer.

Ozone gas in the upper atmosphere protects the planet’s surface from harmful solar radiation. The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered in 1985, increasing concerns about human emissions of gases that destroy ozone and the negative consequences for life on Earth. Two years later, the international community signed the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer through regulation of ozone-depleting compounds. Later...

Coordinated experiments run across major Earth system models help improve model projections and advance climate science understanding.

Projections of the future state of the Earth system can differ significantly across models, with various potential sources of uncertainty. To better understand the sources of difference and where fundamental scientific understanding can be improved, the Earth system modeling community uses a set of experiments run across many models known as the ...

Model runs of CMIP5 models without greenhouse gas forcing (orange lines) demonstrate natural variability in average annual global surface temperatures expected without human influence on the climate.

Earth system models allow researchers to evaluate the size and strength of various influences on the climate system and identify the human contribution to the warming trend.

Earth system models allow researchers to distinguish “internal” climate variability (natural climate cycles) from the effects of “external” influences on the climate, both human and natural (including variations in incoming solar energy, volcanic eruptions, and greenhouse gas emissions from human activities). Model simulations of natural variability from the...

The Strawberry Advisory System tool, which shows risk levels for climate-related disease in strawberry crops, helps growers make decisions about fungicide application.

Interagency efforts develop and deliver science-based information and technologies to help agricultural producers and natural resource managers make optimal management decisions.

Farmers, ranchers, and land managers across the country rely on weather and climate information in their management decisions. To help producers and managers better understand the risks and opportunities that extreme weather events and climate change present for their operations, interagency efforts produce and deliver a range of information tools and resources that help guide climate risk...

The January 2016 melt event on the West Antarctic ice sheet was captured by satellite and surface observations.

An observing campaign on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is improving understanding of influences on recent ice loss and the implications for future sea level rise.

Antarctica holds the largest reservoir of ice on Earth and is significant contributor to sea level rise. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, once considered relatively stable, has shed an increasing amount of ice...

Longitudinal cross-section of 1998–2016 SHADOZ ozonesonde total column ozone (O3)

Balloon-borne instruments measure ozone levels high in the tropical atmosphere, providing new data to help refine projections of future climate change as well as educational opportunities for students in participating countries.

Ozone is a powerful greenhouse gas and an important contributor to global climate change. Its impact on the climate is strongest in a region of Earth’s upper atmosphere (upper troposphere and lower stratosphere) where it influences the amount of energy that escapes to space. Ozone distribution in this region is influenced by the upward...

Regional comparisons of submarine (1958–1976 and 1993–1997), ICESat (2003–2007), and CryoSat-2 (2011–2016) ice thickness data, showing declines in ice thickness over time.

Satellite observations of sea ice thickness provide an opportunity to improve seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice cover.

Arctic sea ice grows and melts each year with the seasons, reaching its low point in September. Summer sea ice cover has shrunk significantly over the past thirty years, although variation from year to year means that the downward trend is not uniform. Arctic sea ice plays a critical role in regulating weather and climate in and beyond the region. Sea ice decline activates a feedback loop in the climate system: as highly...

G-LiHT measurements for an area within Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest near Fairbanks, Alaska.

Scientists are using aerial and ground survey methods to measure change in Alaska’s interior forests and its impact on ecosystem services.

The boreal forests of interior Alaska are changing rapidly as the climate warms. Wildfires are more frequent and more severe, and declines in growth of spruce trees may be driving a shift towards ecosystems normally found in warmer climates. These changes can have significant impacts on the quality of wildlife habitat and ecosystem services that support the subsistence economies of many native Alaskan...

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Highlights

USGCRP supports major international global change assessments

Scientists investigate the effects of carbon emissions from thawing permafrost soils

Monitoring recovery of the ozone layer

Collaborative modeling experiments to improve understanding of the future of the Earth system

Exploring human and natural influences on climate

Providing climate information tools to agricultural communities

Investigating ice sheet change in Antarctica

Measuring ozone in the tropics

Advancing seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice

Monitoring change in Alaskan forests