James A. Eilers

Branch: Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)

Personal

• Registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Mechanical Engineering, State of California.
• Private Pilot, Airplane Single Engine Land.
• Extra Class Amateur Radio Operator.

Education

• B.S. in Engineering, 1978 
• University of California, Los Angeles 

Experience

• Engineering analysis and field support for the C-HARRIER instrument suite on the CIRPAS Twin Otter. 
• Executive Secretary and member of the Ames AFSRB and FRRB. 
• MTLS ascent trajectory analysis and mechanical design of demonstrator rocket and launch rail system. 
• Shuttle Sustaining Engineering Support, NASA Subsystems Engineer (NSE) for Structures A. 

• Shuttle flight support as member of Debris Assessment Team (DAT) for STS-116 to STS-135. 
• NASA Designated Range Safety Officer (DSRO) for UAV operations. 
• Lead engineer for AATS-14 and AATS-6 Sunphotometer instruments. 
• Project manager for AATS-14 Sunphotometer Rework Project. 
• Project manager for the SONEX airborne field campaign. 

• Lead mechanical engineer and project manager for the Argus Airborne Spectrometer. 
• Lead engineer for OPTIMA open path spectrometer DDF project which led to proposals for the OPTIMA instrument for both the ER-2 and DC-8. 
• Project manager & lead engineer for Airborne Tunable Laser Absorption Spectrometer (ATLAS). 

Research Interests

• Atmospheric Instrumentation 
• Airborne Equipment 
• Structural Analysis 
• Airworthiness Compliance 

Awards & Others

39 NASA Awards; 1 Special Achievement Award, 2 Superior Accomplishment Awards, 

23 Group Achievement Awards, 5 Spotlight Awards, and 8 Special Act or Service Awards.

Select Publications

• Loewenstein, M., Jost, H., Grose, J., Eilers, J., Lynch, D., Jensen, S., Marmie, J.. 2003.   Argus: A new instrument for the measurement of the stratospheric dynamical tracers, N₂O and CH₄. 2002. Spectrochimica Acta Part a-Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 58 (11), 2329-2345. 
• Redemann, J., Schmid, B., Eilers, J.A., Kahn, R., Levy, R.C., Russell, P.B., Livingston, J.M., Hobbs, P.V., Smith, W.L., Jr., Holben, B.N.,  Suborbital measurements of spectral optical depth and its variability at sub-satellite-grid scales in support of  CLAMS, 2001. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Special Issue “Chesapeake Lighthouse and Aircraft Measurements for Satellites (CLAMS) Field Experiment, November, 2003. 
• Redemann, J., B. Schmid, J. A.Eilers, R.A.Kahn, R. C. Levy, P. B. Russell, J. M. Livingston, P. V. Hobbs, W. L. Smith Jr., B. N. Holben, Suborbital measurements of spectral aerosol optical depth and its variability at sub-satellite grid scales in support of CLAMS, 2001, J. Atmos. Sci., Vol. 62, No. 4, pp. 993-1007, 2005. 
• P. Russell, J. Livingston, B. Schmid, J. Eilers, R. Kolyer, J. Redemann, S. Ramirez, J.-H. Yee, W. Swartz, R. Shetter, C. Trepte, A. Risley Jr., B. Wenny, J. Zawodny, W. Chu, M. Pitts, J. Lumpe, M. Fromm, C. Randall, K. Hoppel, R. Bevilacqua, Aerosol optical depth measurements by airborne sun photometer in SOLVE II: Comparisons to SAGE III, POAM III and airborne spectrometer measurements, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, Page(s) 7291-7353. SRef-ID: 1680-7375/acpd/2004-4-7291 
• Schmid,B., R. Ferrare, C. Flynn, R. Elleman, D. Covert, A. Strawa, E. Welton, D. Turner, H. Jonsson, J. Redemann, J. Eilers, K. Ricci, A. G. Hallar, M. Clayton, J. Michalsky, A. Smirnov, B. Holben, J. Barnard.: How well do state-of-the-art techniques measuring the vertical profile of tropospheric aerosol extinction compare?, J. Geophys. Res, Vol. 111., D05S07, doi: 10.1029/2005JD005837, 2006. 

• J. M. Livingston, B. Schmid, P. B. Russell, J. A. Eilers, R. W. Kolyer, J. Redemann, S. A. Ramirez, J.-H. Yee, W. H. Swartz, C. R. Trepte, L. W. Thomason, M. C. Pitts, M. A. Avery, C. E. Randall, J. D. Lumpe, R. M. Bevilacqua, M. Bittner, T. Erbertseder, R. D. McPeters, R. E. Shetter, E. V. Browell, J. B. Kerr, K. Lamb, Retrieval of ozone column content from airborne Sun photometer measurements during SOLVE II: comparison with coincident satellite and aircraft measurements, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 5, 243-286, 2005, SRef-ID: 1680-7375/acpd/2005-5-243 
• Livingston, J., B. Schmid, J. Redemann, P. Russell, S. Ramirez, J. Eilers, W. Gore, S. Howard, J. Pommier, E. Fetzer, S. Seeman, E. Borbas, and D. Wolfe  Comparison of Water Vapor Measurements by Airborne Sunphotometer and Near-Coincident In Situ and Satellite Sensors during INTEX-ITCT 2004, J. Geophys. Res., INTEX-A special section.   2006JD007733. 
• Redemann, J., P. Pilewskie, P. B. Russell, J. M. Livingston, S. Howard, B. Schmid, J. Pommier, W. Gore, J. Eilers, and M. Wendisch.  2006.  Airborne measurements of spectral direct aerosol radiative forcing in the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment/Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation of anthropogenic pollution, 2004.  J. Geophys. Res., 111, D14210, doi:10.1029/2005JD006812. 
• Russell, P. B., J. M. Livingston, J. Redemann, B. Schmid, S. A. Ramirez, J. Eilers, R. Kahn, A. Chu, L. Remer, P. K. Quinn, M. J. Rood, W. Wang, Multi-grid-cell validation of satellite aerosol property retrievals in INTEX/ITCT/ICARTT 2004, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D12S09, doi:10.1029/2006JD007606. 
• Alexandrov, M. D., B. Schmid, D. D. Turner, B. Cairns, V. Oinas, A. A. Lacis, S. I. Gutman, E. R. Westwater, A. Smirnov, and J. Eilers (2009), Columnar water vapor retrievals from multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer data, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D02306, doi:10.1029/2008JD010543. 

• Gilmore, A., L. Estes, J. Eilers, J. Logan, B. Evernden, W. Decker, J. Hagen, R. Davis, J. Broughton, C. Campbell, K. Carney.  2011.  Space Shuttle Orbiter Structures & Mechanisms.  AIAA-2011-7158.  AIAA SPACE 2011 Conference and Exposition, Sep. 27-29, Long Beach, CA. 
• Alexander Bruccoleri, James Eilers, Thomas Lambot, Kevin Parkin. Development and Short-Range Testing of a 100 kW Side-Illuminated Millimeter-Wave Thermal Rocket. NASA TM-2015-218756: 2015. (NASA TM-2015-218756: NTRS)