Diagnostic Metrics for the Low-level Jet in Atmospheric Models

These files contain analyses of the characteristics of the U.S. Great Plains low-level jet (LLJ) that can be used as "truth" metrics for the realization of the LLJ in free-running atmospheric models. The analyses of the LLJ are based on three atmospheric reanalyses: the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), the Modern-Era Retrospective Reanalysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2), and the ECMWF Reanalysis version 5 (ERA5). Four characteristic analyses of the LLJ are provided based on each atmospheric reanalysis. "diagnostics". These contain spatial distributions of LLJ frequency of occurrence, frequency of daily occurrence, mean jet height above the surface, and mean jet speed. These climatological fields are provided by month-of-year. "watervaporflux". These contain vector fields of atmospheric mass flux and water vapor mass flux integrated over the entire atmospheric column and over the planetary boundary layer (PBL) only. These fields are provided by hour-of-day in 3-hr intervals and by month-of-year. "boundaryflux". These contain a timeseries of column-integrated and PBL-integrated mass flux and water vapor mass flux across the Gulf Coast, from the Gulf of Mexico into North America. "isohypses". These contain a climatology of month-of-year and time-of-day climatologies of horizontal winds interpolated onto a vertical grid of fixed heights of the Earth's surface over the PBL. These fields are provided by hour-of-day in 3-hr intervals and by month-of-year. All of these analyses of the LLJ based on the products of the atmospheric reanalyses are computed for years 2000–2024. Version 1: first draft. Version 2: fixed bug in calculation of column (as opposed to pbl) water vapor and mass fluxes, relevant to all watervaporflux and boundaryflux files.