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Steve Goodman

Center for Satellite Applications and Research

Deputy Director

photo of Steve GoodmanDr. Goodman is the Deputy Director of the Office of Research and Applications in NOAA's Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS). He is responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the office, comprised of three divisions and five cooperative institutes, and having a staff of approximately 100 NOAA civil service scientists, technologists, and administrative personnel and an affiliated technical workforce of approximately 100 researchers funded through cooperative agreements and contracts. Dr. Goodman is the Co-Chair of the NESDIS Satellite Products and Services Review Board (SPSRB), a member of the NOAA Monitoring Research Committee, and a US representative to the WMO World Weather Research Program Nowcasting Working Group. He supports the office director with NOAA executive level functions such as the NOAA Research Council and the NOAA Transition Board. In these roles he oversees the development of satellite research and its transition into viable and sustainable applications, as well as charting the direction and composition of research within NOAA. Dr. Goodman came to NOAA in March 2007 following a 20-year federal career as a scientist and manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. This period of government service also included a brief detail in 2003-2004 as a Program Manager in the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters. At NASA Headquarters he initiated an ad-hoc NASA-NOAA working group to improve the Transition from Research to Operations, and he served on the interagency USGEO Planning and Integration Team where helped develop the Ten-Year US Strategic Plan for Integrated Earth Observations. At MSFC he wore multiple hats serving most recently as the Manager of the Earth Science Office, as the Principal Investigator and Lead Scientist for Nowcasting at the Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center, and as an Adjunct Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The MSFC Earth Science Office conducted research and applied science in the atmospheric, hydrologic, and geologic sciences using space, sub-orbital, ancillary in-situ and surface observing systems, and used various models to integrate the observations and advance our knowledge of the earth system.

Dr. Goodman's research specialization includes the remote sensing of thunderstorms, lightning, and precipitation processes, and the application of space-based remote sensing to improve short-range forecasts to mitigate the impacts of convective weather hazards. In 2001 he received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement for his research on severe storms. In support of current and planned missions Dr. Goodman is serving as a technical advisor to the GOES-R Program Office, is a voting member of the Source Evaluation Board for the formulation and implementation of the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper, and is the Team Lead for the GOES-R Lightning Applications Team. He also continues in his role as a Co- Investigator on the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Lightning Imaging Sensor (TRMM/LIS) Instrument Team. Dr. Goodman is a past member of various AMS and AGU technical committees and is currently an Associate Editor of JGR-Atmospheres. He earned his PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, MS in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, and BA in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Dr. Goodman is an internationally recognized expert in thunderstorm physics and lightning with more than 60 refereed papers, book chapters, and reports.

Selected Publications

Chronis, T. G., S. J. Goodman, D. Cecil, D. Buechler, F. R. Robertson, J. Pittman, and R. J. Blakeslee, 2007: "Global Lightning Activity from an ENSO Perspective," Geophys. Res. Lett., accepted.

Goodman, S., D. Buechler, and E. McCaul. 2007: "Lightning," chapter in "Our Changing Planet: The View from Space," Michael D. King, Claire L. Parkinson, Kim C. Partington, and Robin G. Williams, ed., Cambridge University Press, ISBN-13: 9780521828703.

Mach, D., H. Christian, R. Blakeslee, D. Boccippio, S. Goodman, and W. Boeck. 2007: "Performance Assessment of the Optical Transient Detector and Lightning Imaging Sensor. Part II: Clustering Algorithm," J. Geophys. Res., 112, D09210, doi:10.1029/2006JD007787.

Goodman, S. J., R. Blakeslee, H. Christian, W. Koshak, J. Bailey, J. Hall, E. McCaul, D. Buechler, C. Darden, J. Burks, T. Bradshaw, and P. Gatlin. 2005: The North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array: Recent Severe Storm Observations and Future Prospects, Special Issue (ICAE) of Atmospheric Research, 76, 423-437.

Williams, E., V. Mushtak, D. Rosenfeld, S. Goodman, and D. Boccippio. 2005: Thermodynamic Conditions Favorable to Superlative Thunderstorm Updraft, Mixed Phase Microphysics and Lightning Flash Rate, Special Issue (ICAE) of Atmospheric Research, 76, 288-306.

Cecil, D. J., Steven J. Goodman, Dennis J. Boccippio, Edward J. Zipser and Stephen W. Nesbitt. 2005: Three Years of TRMM Precipitation Features. Part I: Radar, Radiometric, and Lightning Characteristics. Monthly Weather Review: Vol. 133, No. 3, pp. 543–566.

Boeck, W. L., D. M. Suszcynsky, T. E. Light, A. R. Jacobson, H. J. Christian, S. J. Goodman, D. E. Buechler, and J. L. L. Guillen. 2004: A Demonstration of the Capabilities of Multisatellite Observations of Oceanic Lightning, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D17204, doi:10.1029/2003JD004491.


E-mail: Steve.Goodman@noaa.gov

NOAA / NESDIS / Office of Research and Applications
World Weather Building, Room 701
5200 Auth Road
Camp Springs, MD 20746
Phone: 301-763-8127 ext 132
Fax: 301-763-8108