Ralph Ferrarois the Associate Director of ESSIC and former Chief of the NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Climate Studies Branch. Ferraro joined NOAA in 1991 as a Physical Scientist, and became one of the original group of five scientists in SCSB in 2003. During his career, Ferraro has been affiliated with several science teams. He has previously led the NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) Precipitation Science Team and was a member of NASA’s Precipitation Measurement Mission (PMM) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) science teams. He has also served as the co-chair and the rapporteur of the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS), International Precipitation Working Group. Ferraro’s current research focuses on the use of environmental satellite remote sensing for both weather and climate studies with an emphasis on precipitation and other hydrological cycle products. He has a Master of Science degree in Meteorology from the University of Maryland.