Share

Facebook logo Twitter logo Google+ logo LinkedIn logo Reddit logo

February 2015

Volume 6, Issue 1

Click the links below to jump to an article, or scroll down farther to browse all articles. 

What's on GlobalChange.gov? Free reports.

All of the publications in our Reports Library are downloadable. But did you know that some are available in print, free of charge? Find the report you want, and if the “Add to Cart” option is available, it can be delivered to you in print. Some of the reports available in print include:

Coming soon to GlobalChange.gov - The FAQs and the Climate Science Supplement of the 2014 National Climate Assessment, which are currently available as PDFs, will soon be added to the report website as searchable, linkable web pages.   

Multiple agencies confirm 2014 as the hottest year on record

2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since record keeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by scientists at NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Japan Meteorological Agency. 2014 was also a record-warm year for global oceans. Including 2014, 9 of the 10 warmest years in the 135-year period of record have occurred in the 21st century.

SMAP satellite to measure soil moisture from space

NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite launched on January 31. It will take measurements worldwide every 2–3 days for the next three years, collecting data on the moisture content of topsoil and detecting whether or not soil is frozen. These measurements will improve weather and crop yield forecasts, monitoring and prediction systems for floods and droughts, and capabilities for research on the water, energy, and carbon cycles.

Upcoming events

Session on the National Climate Assessment at AAAS 2015

A session at this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will focus on the National Climate Assessment as a resource for climate literacy and decision making. This session will explore how the report is being used in various sectors to address societal issues, and it will seek input to help shape future research efforts that can both advance climate science and benefit society. In addition, the session will describe an ongoing engagement between the scientific community, climate literacy stakeholders, and decision makers to ensure that the National Climate Assessment can continue to deliver up-to-date climate information. 

Public comment period for the draft USGCRP Climate and Health Assessment

A 60-day public comment period is anticipated to open in late March for the draft report, Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. The Environmental Protection Agency, on behalf of USGCRP, will post an announcement of the public comment period on the Federal Register. The draft report will be available at www.globalchange.gov/health-assessment, and comments from the public will be accepted electronically through the USGCRP review portal. If you would like to be notified when the public comment period opens, please email us.

Recaps of recent events

USGCRP Climate Projections Workshop

Experts from seven Federal agencies met at the USGCRP National Coordination Office (NCO) on February 3–4 to discuss their efforts in providing downscaled projections of future climate conditions through agency web portals and to identify opportunities for collaboration and sharing lessons learned. Agency teams shared information about current products and plans for future development; they also considered how their work could support climate scenario needs for the next National Climate Assessment, as well as the Climate Data Initiative and the Climate Resilient Toolkit (CRT). For example, the pressing need for climate projections suitable for the CRT’s Climate Explorer drew considerable attention, with the participants challenged to provide strong case studies on data use, improve visualization techniques, and effectively convey the uncertainties inherent in projections of future climate. In addition, participants brainstormed ideas about widening the use of indicators of key thresholds in impacted systems (for example, change in the number of consecutive days over 95°F) as a promising approach for presenting data about future climate conditions. Finally, a recurring theme was the need for a “Consumer Reports” approach to better define the suitability of climate projection products for operational use by decision makers. The workshop advanced interagency dialogue, improved participants’ understanding of opportunities and challenges, and produced a set of potential activities for USGCRP to pursue that could inform future climate assessments and related efforts.   

ESIP 2015 Winter Meeting

USGCRP NCO staff led a session on the Global Change Information System (GCIS) at the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) 2015 Winter Meeting (January 6–8). The session included an overview of the GCIS as a web-based source of human- and machine-readable data and metadata, and provided updates on the system’s status and progress, including in the documentation of findings and figures from the 2014 National Climate Assessment. A discussion with the audience provided feedback from the community about the long-term vision for the GCIS. Notes on the session, including the audience discussion, are available from ESIP. 

North American Carbon Program/AmeriFlux PI Meeting

The fifth biennial North American Carbon Program Principal Investigators’ (PI) Meeting and the Ameriflux PI Meeting took place jointly on January 26–29, with 370 attendees from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The joint meeting was supported by USGCRP’s Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group/U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program. Among scientists, program managers, and practitioners from all three countries, speakers and session chairs included active participants in USGCRP and representatives from the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Science communicators also contributed to the meeting, as documented in a video of remarks from NASA’s Peter Griffith and a blog post from scientist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson, both of which focus on the challenge of conveying carbon cycle concepts in a way that engages and excites non-scientists.

AMS Annual Meeting 2015

At the American Meteorological Society (AMS) 2015 Annual Meeting (January 4–8), USGCRP NCO staff co-chaired a three-part session entitled "The 2014 U.S. National Climate Assessment: Science, Policy, and the Future.” During the session, National Climate Assessment authors and assessment users discussed the major scientific highlights of the 2014 report, the process as envisioned and executed, the concept of sustained assessment, and policy implications of assessments. In the next few weeks, AMS will post recordings of several of the talks on the session webpages (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Also at AMS, the Sixth Conference on Environment and Health (6Health) focused on the advances needed to develop and deliver information about water, weather, and climate as it impacts the health of people and the environment. Co-chairs and members of USGCRP’s Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health gave presentations covering a range of related issues; a full list of 6Health presentations is available from AMS.

AGU Fall Meeting 2014

GCIS team members Robert Wolfe (left), Brian Duggan (center left), and Justin Goldstein (right), with Curt Tilmes (center right) at the AGU Awards Banquet.
GCIS team members Robert Wolfe (left), Brian Duggan (center left), and Justin Goldstein (right), with Curt Tilmes (center right) at the AGU Awards Banquet.

USGCRP NCO staff convened, chaired, and participated in various sessions at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 2014, covering topics such as the carbon cycle; climate literacy (I, II, III, Union session); the Global Change Information System and Earth science informatics (I, II); and remaining science questions from the National Climate Assessment, among others. NASA’s Curt Tilmes, a former detailee to the USGCRP NCO, received the Charles S. Falkenberg Award for his contributions to Earth science data stewardship—including his leadership in the development of the GCIS. Melissa Kenney, research faculty at University of Maryland and lead PI for the USGCRP pilot climate indicators system (in development), received a Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award for her cost analysis paper on optimizing land building in the Mississippi River Delta. 

Staff news

Tom Armstrong retired from Federal service at the end of 2014 after a distinguished career with the Department of the Interior and most recently as the Executive Director of USGCRP. Tom will be missed, but he remains engaged in the climate community through consulting work. USGCRP is pleased to welcome Chris Weaver as Acting Executive Director, a role he takes on after three years of service to the Program as a detailee from the Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to that, Chris was one of the chief architects of the National Global Change Research Plan 2012–2021, developed during 2010–2011. He joined USGCRP soon after the finalization of the Plan to coordinate the Program’s Advance Science portfolio and became Deputy Executive Director in 2013. Chris’s background is in climate science, with research on topics as diverse as clouds, land use and land cover change, water cycle dynamics, air and water quality impacts under climate change, and decision making under uncertainty.

New student interns joined the USGCRP NCO in December and January:

In leadership and service news, Justin Goldstein was named Committee Chair for ESIP’s Preservation and Stewardship collaboration area, and Emily Seyller was appointed to the Climate, Energy and Environment Policy Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Job Opportunity: USGCRP is seeking a student intern to assist with managing content and multimedia for GlobalChange.gov; analyze and report on website and social media usage statistics; draft content for the web and social media; and help manage our stakeholder database. This is a part-time, paid position located in Washington, DC. Initial consideration will be given to applications received by February 27.

 

Looking for past issues of this newsletter? An archive is now available.
The USGCRP newsletter primarily focuses on programmatic news and updates. If you’re looking for more Federal climate science news, visit our main news page or subscribe to our RSS news feed. 

Join Our Newsletter Mailing List

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) coordinates and integrates Federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. USGCRP began as a presidential initiative in 1989 and was mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-606), which called for "a comprehensive and integrated United States research program which will assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change."

The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is conducted under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990, which requires a report to the President and Congress every four years that evaluates, integrates, and interprets USGCRP findings. The NCA aims to incorporate advances in the understanding of climate science into larger social, ecological, and policy systems, thereby providing integrated analyses of impacts and vulnerability, helping the Federal Government to prioritize climate science investments, and delivering science that can be used by communities throughout our Nation to plan for a more sustainable and environmentally sound future.