Michael Ferrari
Michael Ferrari is the Founder and Principal at Atlas Research Innovations, as well as the Director of Commodity Research & Risk Management for a global company in the agriculture sector. He also serves on the American Meteorological Society Board of Societal Impacts of Weather and Climate, and is a judge for the MIT ClimateCoLab crowdsourcing project. His primary applied research interests lie at the nexus of climate physics and biophysics, environmental & disease modeling/analysis, sensor networks and the subsequent development of data-driven commercial tools and applications that can benefit from this research. Michael is a frequent speaker at scientific, commodity and data/technology conferences around the world, where his talks focus on the confluence of human-environmental-technology interaction and the broader relationship of these topics to societal issues including climate, food and energy security, and global change. Michael holds a PhD in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics and Evolutionary Biology from Rutgers. He blogs at wired GEO.
Weather data and the supply chain
The predictive power of weather info, as illustrated by cows and La Niña.
A forecast — weather or otherwise — is always a blend of art and science. Nothing is foolproof. But in this post, Michael Ferrari shows how simple analysis can reveal a connection between a weather event (La Niña) and commodity production (milk).
Sensor networks and the future of forecasting
Data and low-cost sensor networks can spot extreme weather before it hits.
Identifying extreme weather patterns can minimize impact when that weather arrives. But to improve long-range forecasts, we'll need to create environmental sensor networks out of phones, satellites and other technology.