Ronald Gelaro

Ron Gelaro is the Lead Scientist for atmospheric data assimilation at the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  In this capacity he oversees the development of the Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP) system, which produces real-time weather analysis and forecast products used by NASA instrument teams and other internal and external researchers. Ron also plays a key role in the development of GMAO's climate reanalysis systems, including the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), and is a member of GMAO's senior management team.

Ron’s scientific expertise is in the areas of data assimilation and predictability as it pertains to numerical weather prediction, including the use of adjoint methods to quantify and understand the impact of observations on numerical weather forecasts. Over the years, Ron’s interests have evolved from basic and applied research in these areas toward the development of operational-quality systems for weather analysis and prediction.

Most recently, Ron leads the development of GMAO’s next-generation data assimilation system, which couples the GEOS model with the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) infrastructure. This new system will provide GMAO with a unified capability for coupled Earth system analysis and prediction of the atmosphere, ocean, land and cryosphere.

1989: Ph.D. in Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University

1983: M.S. in Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University

1980: B.S. in Meteorology, with honors, The Pennsylvania State University

2021: Robert H. Goddard Award, for Merit

Ron serves as NASA's Executive Team representative for the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA), where he helps develop and oversee the scientific program of this important inter-agency collaboration in data Earth system data assimilation. He has served on external review panels for NRL Marine Meteorology Division and the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT), and has served multiple times as a member of the scientific organizing committee of the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Workshop on the Impact of Various Observing Systems on Numerical Weather Prediction and Earth System Prediction and other national and international meetings.