Rolf H Reichle, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, Qing Liu, GMAO, building 33, Greenbelt, MD, United States, Joseph V Ardizzone, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, Wade T Crow, USDA ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab, Beltsville, MD, United States, Gabrielle De Lannoy, KU Leuven, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Heverlee, Belgium, John S Kimball, The University of Montana, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, W.A. Franke College of Forestry & Conservation, Missoula, MT, United States, Jana Kolassa, USRA/GESTAR, Columbia, United States and Randal D Koster, NASA Goddard SFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States