Scientific assessments support decision-making by synthesizing climate knowledge – including scientific research, practitioner experience and local or Indigenous knowledge – to evaluate the current state of the science and its uncertainty. Climate assessments like the U.S. National Climate Assessment and state-level and other sub-national climate assessments inform public and private decisions across the United States and its territories.

Climate assessments are critical, highly influential scientific products that ensure that the state of the science is synthesized to assess confidence, likelihood, and risk in ways that support public and private investments. Forecasts, projections, and scenarios are key assessment inputs that increase understanding of the causes of climate change and the range of positive and negative future consequences. As the scope of climate literature has grown, independent, peer-reviewed syntheses addressing specific areas of research have become increasingly important inputs into assessments.

Key topics relevant to climate assessments in the United States include (but are not limited to):

• Effects of climate change on physical, natural, and social systems in the United States
• The state of knowledge and progress on adaptation, mitigation, resilience, and disaster risk management, including decision-making processes and governance
• Risks and solutions
• Infrastructure and transportation
• Urban, suburban, and rural communities
• Indigenous lands, people, and treaty rights
• US international interests and national security
• Human health and air quality
• Economic systems
• Food, energy, and water systems
• Nature, forests, and ecosystems
• Coasts, oceans, and marine resources
• Regional assessments that synthesize one or more relevant key topics
• Emerging areas of concern or interest related to climate changes, impacts, vulnerabilities, risks, and responses
• Decision support and assessment tools such as indicators, novel datasets, and cross-cutting analyses, mapping, projections, and forecasts

The joint AGU-AMS “US Climate Collection: Informing Assessment of Risks and Solutions” seeks papers that synthesize critical elements of recent and emerging knowledge to support future national and sub-national assessments of climate risks and solutions within the United States. Contributions will be welcome across the AGU and AMS family of journals. In addition to synthesis papers relevant to national and regional climate assessment (including but not limited to the topics identified above), contributions that can inform evidence-based design of future local to multi-sectoral assessments of climate change risks and solutions within the United States are also welcome.

All AGU and AMS journals are accepting submissions in this special collection.

Authors can select up to three journals to submit their manuscript to based on the best match between the manuscript topic and the scope of the journal. Submission proposals should include the estimated word and figure count. If those exceed the standard limits for the journal but are within the limits of related journals, authors are welcome to provide a justification for the extra length and the choice of journal, which the organizers and editors will be willing to consider.