Eric Aligo

EPIC Program Coordinator

Eric Aligo is a contractor supporting the EPIC program as the Program Coordinator/Chief Scientist. Before joining WPO, Eric worked at the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), where he contributed to the development of version 1 of the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS), focusing on physics and diagnostics. He led Convection-Allowing Model (CAM) physics meetings and also served as a Primary Task Leader (PTL) for SAIC. Prior to that, Eric worked with the mesoscale branch team at EMC to develop the physics in the Nonhydrostatic Multiscale Model on the B-grid (NMMB), and was a co-developer of the Ferrier-Aligo microphysics scheme implemented into operations. When Eric began his work at EMC, he served as the link between the hurricane and regional groups.

Eric obtained his MS and PhD degrees from Iowa State University. His MS work used the workstation Eta model to evaluate precipitation and dynamical processes of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). Eric’s PhD work transitioned over to using the WRF ARW evaluating the impact of soil moisture and soil texture on the development and evolution of MCSs, and also evaluating the impact of different vertical grid configurations. The bulk of his PhD work focused on using results from a bin microphysics scheme to modify processes in bulk microphysics schemes in order to improve the structure and evolution of MCSs.