Ask James Jordan what he does and he says he’s an electronics engineer. Ask his colleagues at NOAA Research what he does and they “Jim’s exceptional level of commitment has advanced new observational technology and anticipated new observational needs which directly affect the prediction of weather, climate and air quality.”

Jim’s engineering leadership and technological innovation have earned him the year’s first Employee of the Month award. At NOAA Research’s Environmental Technology Laboratory in Boulder, Jim is described as finding “simple but elegant solutions to engineering problems.”

To collect initial data demonstrating the value of one innovation, he collaborated with Scripps Institute of Oceanography to deploy a wind-profiler prototype on a buoy anchored off Southern California’s coast.

As new instruments are designed and deployed to remote, inaccessible areas, Jim’s benchmark simplicity will be key to reliable yet ongoing and unattended operation.

Most of Jim’s experiments involve a network of radars used to track where air pollution is carried by the wind. He also measures atmospheric information for use in models that predict air pollution problems. To conduct his experiments, Jim works on radars that measure winds and temperature. He develops remote sensing instruments to measure the atmosphere and sea. He is responsible for improving the data quality of radars and their use for various experiments.

“Without data, environmental decisions would be made without any knowledge of what happens in the atmosphere,” he said.

To advance this knowledge, Jim has promoted highly effective partnerships with private investments and assembled energetic and highly qualified engineers to both develop and deploy remote sensing technology throughout the globe. To conduct climate research, he has led field engineers in improving and deploying remote sensing instruments from the Poles to the Equator.

Asked what he values most about working at NOAA, Jim underscored the “freedom to pursue ideas for improving radars.”

From the time they were small, Jim’s son and daughter spent time in his lab. Both learned early on how to build electronic circuits. Now his teen-age son is teaching himself assembly language to write a game for his calculator.