WE PLAN TO CONDUCT DATA ANALYSES ON THE RETROSPECTIVE NU-WRF/NOAH-MP REGIONAL CLIMATE SIMULATIONS FROM 2002 2018 COVERING DRY YEARS AND WET YEARS OVER THE CONTIGUOUS US DOMAIN. WE WILL CONDUCT THE FOLLOWING TASKS OF MODEL EVALUATION AND ANALYSES ON THE MODELED REGIONAL WATER CYCLE. TASK 1: WE WILL EVALUATE THE MODEL SIMULATIONS OF PRECIPITATION RUNOFF ET LAI AND TERRESTRIAL WATER STORAGE (TWS) CHANGE AGAINST GPCP USGS WATER WATCH MODIS AND GRACE DATA RESPECTIVELY. TASK 2: WE WILL ANALYZE THE WATER-RECYCLING RATIO TO QUANTIFY THE CONTRIBUTION OF LOCAL ET TO PRECIPITATION. WE WILL MERRA-2 DATA TO ANALYZE THE WATER RECYCLING EFFICIENCY ET / (ET + QIN) AND PRECIPITATION EFFICIENCY E P / (ET + QIN) WHERE P IS PRECIPITATION AND QIN THE ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE CONVERGENCE INTO THE CENTRAL US. QIN WILL BE COMPUTED DIRECTLY FROM THE MERRA-2 WIND AND MOISTURE FIELDS AND INDIRECTLY FROM THE USGS MONTHLY RUNOFF AND GRACE TWS CHANGE DATA.