The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) is responsible for the entire Colorado Basin (CRB) and the eastern Great Basin (GB). From a water management perspective, the commitment of water to various users most often occurs in the spring, and is almost entirely based on estimates of the western USA snowpack. Improving seasonal drought predictions requires use of models that provide physically realistic simulations of fundamental hydrologic processes. Among these, for the western USA, representation of snow is perhaps most critical. As drought frequency increases in the CRB and GB, it is critical that the CBRFC and the dependent water managers have more comprehensive real-time knowledge of the snow cover and its properties for more precise runoff forecasting and stakeholder decision support. The primary objective of this proposal is to integrate real-time high precision MODIS Snow Covered Area and Grain size (MODSCAG) fractional snow covered area (SCA) into CBRFC modeling and analysis systems and into stakeholder oriented data products, drastically reducing SCA uncertainties that have hampered forecasting operations for decades. A secondary objective is to ingest and study MODIS Dust Radiative Forcing in Snow (MODDRFS) radiative forcing imagery, to better understand its value as a input to modeling and forecasting approaches. This collaboration directly addresses drought prediction, assessment, adaptation, and mitigation in support of energy security/efficiency; natural resource conservation; and household, municipal, industrial, and in-stream demands for water. It will also improve access and availability of actionable water monitoring, hence drought information. The Snow Cover and Dust Forcing products will be generated and distributed in near real-time by the JPL Snow Server for access by CBRFC. CBRFC will offer a direct connection to stakeholders (End Users) and together with other linked NWS operational centers provides an institutional home to maintain the advances of this effort beyond the project's end.