DeAngelis, Anthony M.Bosilovich, Michael G.Collow, AllisonSchubert, Siegfried D.Koster, Randal D.Dezfuli, AminAkkraoui, Amal ELThomas, NatalieLim, Young-Kwon2025-06-052025-06-052024-12http://hdl.handle.net/11603/38657American Geophysical Union (AGU 2024), Washington, DC, US, December 9-13, 2024The Great Plains low-level jet (GPLLJ), characterized by its diurnally varying southerly winds in the lower troposphere, is a critical component of the hydroclimate in the central US. Here, we evaluate the representation of the GPLLJ in the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) developed by NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). Based on a preliminary analysis of several strong GPLLJ events, MERRA-2 is shown to be a valuable dataset for studying the horizontal, vertical, and diurnal characteristics of the LLJ. A comparison with rawinsonde and radar wind profiles suggests that the strength and height of the LLJ is overall realistic in MERRA-2.1 pageen-USThis is a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.Public Domainhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/Earth Resources and Remote SensingText