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Richard Ferrare
NASA Langley Research Center

Biography:
Dr. Richard Ferrare is a senior research scientist and a member of the Lidar Applications Group in the Chemistry and Dynamics Branch, Atmospheric Sciences Division, at the NASA Langley Research Center. Dr. Ferrare received a B.S. degree in physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1982, a M.S. degree in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984, and a Ph.D. degree in meteorology from the University of Maryland in 1997. From 1985 to 1988, while a faculty research assistant at the University of Maryland, he worked in the Climate and Radiation Branch in the Laboratory for Atmospheres at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) where he investigated atmospheric aerosol optical and physical properties using satellite and ground based measurements. Between 1988-1991, he worked with the Universities Space Research Association in the Environmental Sensors Branch at GSFC where he developed the algorithms and software needed to retrieve atmospheric water vapor, temperature, and aerosol scattering and extinction from data collected by the GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar (SRL) system. During this time, Dr. Ferrare also developed the algorithms and software used to derive ozone, temperature, and aerosol profiles from data collected by the GSFC stratospheric DIAL ozone lidar. Dr. Ferrare worked for the Hughes STX Corporation between 1992 to 1997 where he was a chief scientist with the NASA/GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar project at GSFC. He began working at NASA LaRC in 1997.

Dr. Ferrare has extensive experience in the acquisition and analyses of atmospheric remote sensing data, and in particular, lidar data. He has participated in many field experiments with the NASA GSFC ground-based and NASA LaRC airborne lidar systems. As part of the EOS Validation Program, Dr. Ferrare has been working on the development and use of algorithms to retrieve aerosol backscattering and extinction profiles using data acquired by the Dept. of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Southern Great Plains (SGP) Raman Lidar. He has used DOE ARM SGP data to evaluate and validate MODIS aerosol optical thickness and precipitable water vapor measurements. Dr. Ferrare is the chairman of the DOE ARM Aerosol Working Group and is a member of the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF) Science Board.

Research Area:
We are working on combining lidar and Terra/Aqua MODIS measurements to derive extinction profiles for both the fine and coarse mode aerosols. Lidar profiles of aerosol backscattering acquired during recent field experiments conducted over the Pacific (Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P)) and Atlantic (Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-4)) Oceans and the Midwestern U.S. (International H2O Project (IHOP)) and from the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment North America (INTEX-NA, Phase-A) field mission conducted over eastern U.S. coastal region will be used along with MODIS spectral radiance measurements in a recently developed algorithm to retrieve the aerosol extinction/backscatter ratio (i.e. lidar ratio), aerosol extinction profiles for both fine and coarse particle modes, and an indication of particle nonsphericity.


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