Ralph R. Ferraro is Branch Chief for the
Satellite Climate Studies Branch, co-located with the Cooperative
Institute for Climate and Satellites (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), TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI),
the EOS Aqua and JAXA GCOME Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer
(AMSR, AMSR-2), the S-NPP Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS)
and the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI). 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.
Ralph received the Dept. of Commerce Bronze Medal in 1995, 2004 and
2008, a Dept. of Commerce Silver Medal in 1999 and a NOAA Technology
Transfer Award in 2014. Ralph is a member of the NASA Precipitation
Measurements Mission and AMSR Science Teams, and the WMO International
Precipitation Working Group (IPWG), which he co- chaired from 2006-08
and currently serves as the IPWG rapporteur to CGMS. He also serves as
the chair of the JPSS Hydrology Initiative where he oversees a number of
projects devoted to developing new uses of JPSS sensors to meet NWS user
needs.
Data, algorithms, and images presented on STAR websites are intended for experimental use only and are not supported on an operational basis.
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Dept. of Commerce • NOAA • NESDIS • Website Owner: STAR • Contact webmaster • Revised: 24 January 2020
Ralph R. Ferraro
Ralph R. Ferraro is Branch Chief for the
Satellite Climate Studies Branch, co-located with the Cooperative
Institute for Climate and Satellites (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.