Ralph R. Ferraro
Cooperative Research Program
Satellite Climate Studies Branch, in College Park, Maryland
Research Scientist
Ralph R. Ferraro is
Branch Chief for the Satellite Climate Studies Branch, co-located with the
Cooperative Institute for Climate Studies (CICS) in College Park, Maryland.
He began his career at NOAA in 1991 and prior to that, worked as a support
contractor to NOAA and NASA. Ralph received the B.S. in meteorology from
Rutgers University in 1980 and the M.S. in meteorology from University of
Maryland in 1982.
Ralph has specialized in the development of algorithms for the retrieval
of hydrological cycle products (such as rain rate and total precipitable
water) from passive microwave satellite measurements. He has been instrumental
in transitioning such products from research to operations, as well as
working with operational meteorological centers
on developing applications for these products. This has included sensors
such as the DMSP Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), the NOAA Advanced
Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI). Ralph has
authored numerous papers on the subject in a variety of scientific journals,
as well as given a number of presentations at scientific forums such as the
NWA and AMS annual meetings.
Ralph received the Dept. of Commerce Bronze Medal in 1995, Dept. of
Commerce Silver Medal in 1999 and again in 2004. Ralph is a member of the
SSM/I Algorithm Research Panel, the NASA Precipitation Measurements Mission
Science Team, and the WMO International Working Group on Precipitation. He
has also served on the AMS committee on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography
for over eight years, which included serving as committee chair, organizing
conferences and short courses. Ralph was recently elected to the NWA
council for a three year term beginning in 2006. He is a strong advocate
in promoting meteorology to young students, and as such, is active in
working with elementary and middle school children on various weather-related
projects. Additionally, he has worked closely with numerous sports
organizations in his community on developing and implementing lightning
safety policies.
Most Recent Publications
Ferraro, R.R., F. Weng, N. Grody, L. Zhao, H. Meng, C. Kongoli, P.
Pellegrino, S. Qiu and C. Dean, 2005: NOAA operational hydrological
products derived from the AMSU. IEEE Trans. Geo. Rem. Sens., 43,
1036 – 1049.
Ferraro, R., P. Pellegrino. M. Turk, W. Chen, S. Qiu, R. Kuligowski,
S. Kusselson, A. Irving, S. Kidder and J. Knaff, 2005: The Tropical
Rainfall Potential. Part 2: Validation, 2005: Weather and Forecasting,
20, 465 – 475.
Kidder, S., J. Knaff, S. Kusselson, R. Ferraro, R. Kuligowski and M.
Turk, 2005: The Tropical Rainfall Potential. Part 1: Description and
Examples. Weather and Forecasting, 20, 456 – 464.
McCollum, J.R. and R.R. Ferraro, 2005: Microwave Rainfall Estimation along
coasts. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 22, 497-512.
Qiu, S., P. Pellegrino and R. Ferraro, 2005: An evaluation of an improved
AMSU rain rate algorithm and its application to winter season rainfall in
the western United States. Weather and Forecasting, 20, 761 - 774.
Sudradjat, A., R. Ferraro and M. Fiorino, 2005: A comparison of total
precipitable water from different data sets. J. Climate., 18, 1790-1807.
E-mail to: Ralph.Ferraro@noaa.gov
