Jianzhi Dong, USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD, United States, Wade T Crow, USDA ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab, Beltsville, MD, United States, Fangni Lei, USDA ARS Hydrol and Remote Sensing Lab, Beltsville, MD, United States, Martha Anderson, USDA ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, United States, Thomas Holmes, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States and Christopher Hain, National Integrated Drought Information System, Boulder, CO, United States