Our Mission
Here at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) we provide secure and timely access to global environmental data and information from satellites and other sources to promote and protect the Nation's security, environment, economy, and quality of life.
Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services
Dr. Volz has more than 30 years of professional experience in aerospace. As the head of NESDIS, he sets the strategic vision and implementation objectives for the Nation’s civilian operational earth observing satellite fleet. Within NOAA he serves as the Co-Chair of the NOAA Observing Systems Council and is a member of the NOAA Executive Council. He is a leader in the international Earth observation community, serving as the NOAA Principal to the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and to the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS). He has also served as the NOAA and US Principal to the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the international Group on Earth Observations (GEO). In each of these roles Dr. Volz leads efforts to coordinate global satellite-based observations among international space agency partners and interested users of remote sensing earth observation data to further the development of a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, and to meet the global weather and environmental monitoring and forecasting efforts.
Prior to coming to NOAA, Dr. Volz worked at NASA Headquarters in the Earth Science Division, and at the Goddard Space Flight Center in satellite design, development, test and operations, including work on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), among others. Dr. Volz worked in industry at Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation from 1997–2002, where he was the Project Manager for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility superfluid helium cryostat and other flight projects.
Dr. Volz has doctorate and master degrees in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s in Physics from the University of Virginia.
"At NESDIS, we must operate the satellite constellation and ground systems with the continued high-reliability, secure and timely delivery of data and services that the Nation requires." -- Dr. Stephen Volz / NESDIS Administrator
Download Dr. Stephen Volz Bio (PDF)
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services
Mark Paese serves as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services. In this capacity, he provides day-to-day oversight of the activities of NESDIS' satellite operations, data processing, product and service delivery and research functions. He also has oversight responsibilities of the NESDIS budget planning and administration.
Mark previously served as the Director of the Office of Operational Systems for NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations and management of NWS systems, providing systems engineering, software management, facilities, communications, configuration management and logistical services. He was also responsible for policy development, implementation, operations, support and evaluation of operational weather systems. Mark has 30 years of experience in all facets of weather, communications and aviation, including 12 years in private industry. He has broad experience in leading science-based service organizations, introducing change, and using and implementing technology and science.
Previously, Mark held senior positions at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and prior to that with Westinghouse Electric Corporation. While in the private sector, he was responsible for systems engineering, operations and maintenance, acquisition, program management, strategic planning and business development.
Mark has also served as the Executive Director of the White House Task Force on Effective Warnings. His efforts resulted in the President signing the Executive Order 13407: Public Alert and Warning Systems. Mark also served on the FCC's Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee - charged with examining existing and planned disaster warning systems - resulting in today's Wireless Emergency Alert capability.
Senior Scientist
Mitch Goldberg, Senior Scientist at NESDIS, first began working at NOAA as an intern in 1979 within the NESDIS Office of Research and Application (ORA), now the NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR).
In the mid 1980’s, Dr. Goldberg developed the first operational physical sounding algorithm, which is still utilized by the Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) legacy satellites. He officially joined NOAA in 1990, and through the early 2000’s, served as the NOAA member of NASA’s AQUA AIRS science team, responsible for a number of sounding algorithms and overseeing the development of an operational system. Today this system is still providing AIRS data to NWP centers.
In 2002, Mitch became Chief of the NESDIS Satellite Meteorology and Climatology Division (SMCD) at NESDIS STAR. At SMCD, he led a division of 27 scientists supported by nearly 100 contractors in calibrating satellite instruments, transitioning research products to operational production, developing radiative transfer models for satellite weather forecasting data assimilation systems, developing and analyzing long-term satellite data sets for studying and assessing climate change, and planning and preparing for new satellite instruments.
During this time, he also formed the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites R-Series(GOES-R) algorithm working group (AWG), responsible for providing the science algorithms for the GOES-R operational production system. In 2011, he moved to the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program to become the new JPSS Senior Scientist. Here, he served as an independent expert and representative of the science and user communities responsible for ensuring the scientific integrity at all stages of satellite development.
Dr. Goldberg is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), and the current chair of the AMS Satellite Meteorological, Oceanography, and Climatology Committee. He has received three Gold Medals, one Silver Medal, and five Bronze Medals from the Department of Commerce, including the 2010 NOAA Administrator’s Award for leadership in developing the international Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS). He received the University of Maryland’s Most Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science in 2004.
Dr. Goldberg earned his Bachelor of Science from Rutgers University and his Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maryland.
The 2016-17 Independent Review Team report provides expert analysis of how NESDIS has addressed recent challenges and opportunities and its strategic path forward. This marks the third such review we've commissioned since 2012. We welcome you to read the NESDIS overview and the full report.
Read NESDIS Response to Independent Review Team (IRT) Recommendations (PDF)
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