Richard Ferrare, NASA lidar specialist in aerosol and water-vapor research

Dr. Richard Ferrare has more than thirty years of experience in lidar remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols and water vapor at NASA. He began work at NASA Goddard in 1985, investigating aerosol optical and physical properties using satellite data and ground-based lidar measurements.

He led retrievals of aerosol backscattering and extinction profiles from the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains Raman Lidar, served as Chair of the ARM Aerosol Working Group from 2000–2004, and remains a member of the ARM Climate Research Facility Science Board.

He has served as principal investigator on NASA and DOE ARM projects and is a past member of the CALIPSO science team. Ferrare has flown on NASA hurricane and severe weather research missions and designed flight strategies to acquire science measurements. He led deployment of the LaRC airborne high-spectral-resolution lidars (HSRLs) in multiple field missions and served as flight scientist for NASA aircraft during SEAC4RS (2013), ORACLES (2016), and ACEPOL (2017).

He chaired the Aerosol Working Group for the proposed ACE satellite mission and is a member of the Science and Applications Leadership Team on the ACCP Mission Study. He is co-author on numerous peer-reviewed publications, including papers in Journal of Climate, Geophysical Research Letters, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques and Meteorological Monographs.

Key Topics

Science, Richard Ferrare, Larc Hsrl, Southern Great Plains, Calipso, Oracles