THERE PRESENTLY EXIST CRITICAL TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC GAPS IN OUR CAPABILITY TO RAPIDLY TRANSLATE THE BENEFIT FROM CURRENT AND PLANNED NASA EARTH OBSERVING SATELLITE MISSIONS INTO OPERATIONAL WEATHER AND HYDROLOGIC PREDICTIONS AS WELL AS INTO RESEARCH MODELS BEING DEVELOPED TO IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF LAND-ATMOSPHERE COUPLING BEHAVIOR. SPECIFICALLY THERE CURRENTLY DOES NOT EXIST A SINGULAR MODELING CAPABILITY OR FRAMEWORK WHICH SUPPORTS FULLY-INTEGRATED TERRESTRIAL HYDROLOGIC DATA ASSIMILATION AND FORWARD MODEL PREDICTION OF KEY HYDROLOGIC VARIABLES SUCH AS SOIL MOISTURE SNOWPACK STREAMFLOW SURFACE WATER LEVELS GROUNDWATER AND COASTAL WATERS. THIS MEANS THAT THERE ARE BOTH SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL INCONSISTENCIES IN HOW THESE TERRESTRIAL HYDROLOGIC PROCESSES ARE REPRESENTED AND CONSTRAINED IN OUR CURRENT WEATHER WATER AND CLIMATE PREDICTION SYSTEMS. WORK COMPLETED UNDER THIS PROPOSAL DIRECTLY MEETS THIS NEED BY INTEGRATING TWO MAJOR RESEARCH AND OPERATIONAL MODELING SYSTEMS (THE NASA LAND INFORMATION SYSTEM AND THE NCAR WRF-HYDRO SYSTEM) USING EARTH SYSTEM MODELING FRAMEWORK (ESMF) MODEL COUPLING PROTOCOLS AND PARADIGMS. THE PRODUCT OF THIS WORK WILL BE AN ESMF STANDARDS-BASED FULLY-INTEGRATED TERRESTRIAL MODELING AND DATA ASSIMILATION FRAMEWORK WHICH WILL SUPPORT CURRENT AND PLANNED NASA EARTH OBSERVING MISSIONS ONGOING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE/NATIONAL WATER CENTER OPERATIONAL PREDICTION SYSTEMS AND THE BROADER ENVIRONMENTAL MODELING RESEARCH COMMUNITY.