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Brian Drouin

Photo of Brian Drouin

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 183-901

Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

818.393.6259

Fax:

818.354.0966

Curriculum Vitae:

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Member of:

Earth Science

Deputy Section Manager

Employed By

Caltech/JPL

Biography

Dr. Brian Drouin's background in chemistry and mathematics, and expertise in molecular physics, have provided long-term support to remote sensing observations through laboratory measurements, analysis with quantum-mechanical models, publications in peer-reviewed journals and open-access to the results in public databases. Beginning with microwave spectroscopy of organometallic compounds, his Ph. D. work involved measurement and analyses of highly precise rotational transition frequencies of molecules in cold molecular beams. At JPL he has recorded and analyzed millimeter and submillimeter spectra of both astrophysical and atmospheric molecules while incorporating state-of-the-art hardware and software into novel spectrometers. He is now a JPL Senior Research Scientist and is responsible for measurements of molecular line-shape parameters involved in collisional and motional processes indicative of planetary and interstellar environments. He is the primary caretaker for the open access JPL spectral line catalog used throughout the spectroscopy and remote sensing communities. He is also the Deputy Principal Investigator for the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) that will quantify the radiative processes effected by changing temperatures in the Arctic.

Education

  • B.S. in Mathematics, University of Wisconsin (1995)
  • B.S. in Chemistry, University of Wisconsin (1995)
  • Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Arizona (1999)

Professional Experience

  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1999-Present)
    • Deputy Manager, Earth Science Section (2021 - present)
    • Senior Research Scientist (2023 - present)
    • Principal Scientist (2018 - present)
    • Group Supervisor, Laboratory Studies and Atmospheric Observations (2015 - 2021)
    • Research Scientist, Science Division (2005 - 2018)
    • Scientist, Science Division (2001-2005)
    • California Institute of Technology Postdoctoral Scholar at JPL (1999-2001)
  • University of Arizona, Department of Chemistry (1995-1999)
    • Research Assistant, Microwave Spectroscopy (1996-1999)
    • Teaching Assistant, Physical & General Chemistry (1995-1999)
  • University of Wisconsin, (1993-1995)
    • Undergraduate Researcher, Inorganic Chemistry (1993-1995)
    • Undergraduate Researcher, Horticulture (1994-1995)
    • Undergraduate Researcher, Analytical Chemistry (1993, 1995)

Research Interests

  • Instrumentation for remote detection of far-infrared radiation (D-PI, PREFIRE)
  • Atmospheric Chemistry, Climate Change and Pollution (PI - Millimeter and Submillimeter Spectroscopy for Atmospheric Research)
  • Low Temperature Collisional Dynamics (PI - Measurements of State-to-State Collision Rates for Water)
  • Molecular Spectra and Structure (PI - Laboratory Spectroscopy and Analysis for Herschel, PI - Millimeter and Submillimeter Spectral Line Catalog)
  • Instrumentation for Laboratory and Field Studies (PI - Spectrometer-on-a-Chip)

Selected Awards

  • URSI/NRSM: Hans Liebe Award Fellowship / Lectureship (2021)
  • Explorer Award - For successful Earth Ventures Instrument-4 Proposal, PREFIRE (2018)
  • JPL Voyager Award - Demonstration of a miniaturized pulse-echo millimeter wave spectrometer (2016)
  • NASA Individual Outstanding Accomplishment "Significant scientific discovery by measuring the structure, spectrum, and dipole moment of HOONO" (2006)

Selected Publications

First author Publications

  1. Drouin, B.J., Nemchick, D.J., Maestrini, A., “High Precision Measurement of the 3P0 - 3P1 Atomic Oxygen Fine Structure Splitting at 2.06 THz”, submitted to J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Trans., 2025
  2. Drouin, B.J., L’Ecuyer, T.S., Padmanabhan, S., et al. “Thermal Infrared Spectrometers for the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE)”, in review at Earth and Space Sciences, 2025.
  3. Drouin, B.J., Nemchick, D.J., Nole, A., Tang, A., Wu, C-T.M., Khiabani, N., Alonso, M., Chang, M-C.F., “Dual-band Fourier-transform millimeter wave spectrometry for in-situ gas sensing” accepted to Planetary Science Journal, April 2023.
  4. Drouin, B.J., Kahn, B.H., Lim, B., Merrelli, A., Nelson, E., Quinn, G., Nagle, F., L’Ecuyer, T., “Orbital Trade Study for the PREFIRE Mission”, Aerospace Conference, 2022 IEEE, 2.0108_2312
  5. Drouin, B.J., "Practical uses of SPFIT", J. Molec. Spectrosc. 340, 1-15, 2017.
  6. Drouin, B.J., Crawford, T.J., Yu, S., "Validation of ozone intensities at 10 μm with THz spectrometry", J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Trans. 203 282-292, 2017.
  7. Drouin, B.J., D.C. Benner, L.R. Brown, M.J. Cich, T.J. Crawford, V.M. Devi, A. Guillaume, J.T. Hodges, E.J. Mlawer, D.J. Robichaud, F. Oyafuso, V. J. Payne, K. Sung, E.H. Wishnow, S. Yu, "Multispectrum analysis of the Oxygen A-band." J. Quant. Spectrosc. & Radiat. Trans. 186, 118-138, 2017.
  8. Drouin, B.J., A. Tang, E. Schlecht, E, Brageot, Q.J. Gu, Y. Ye, R. Shu, M.C.F Change and Y. Kim, "A CMOS millimeter-wave transceiver embedded in a semi-confocal Fabry-Perot cavity for molecular spectroscopy", J. Chem. Phys. 145(7) 074201, 2016.
  9. Drouin, B.J., V. Payne, F. Oyafuso, K. Sung, E. Mlawer, “Pressure broadening of oxygen by water”, J. Quant. Spectrosc. & Radiat. Trans., 133 190-198 2014.
  10. Drouin, B.J., S. Yu, B. M. Elliott, T. J. Crawford, C. E. Miller, “High resolution spectral analysis of oxygen. III. Laboratory investigation of the airglow bands”, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 144301, 2013.
  11. Drouin B.J., J.C. Pearson, S. Yu, H. Gupta “Characterization and use of a 1.3-1.5 THz multiplier chain for molecular spectroscopy.” (invited paper) IEEE-TST 3(3) 314-321, 2013.
  12. Drouin B.J. “Isotopic Spectra of the Hydroxyl Radical” J. Phys. Chem. A 117(39) 10076-10091, 2013.
  13. Drouin, B.J., L. Wiesenfeld, "Low-Temperature water-hydrogen-molecule collisions probed by pressure broadening and line shift", Phys. Rev. A 86, 022705, 2012.
  14. Drouin, B.J., H. Gupta, S. Yu, C.E. Miller, H.S.P. Mueller, "High resolution spectral analysis of oxygen. II. Rotation al spectra of a a 1Δg O2 isotopologues", J. Chem. Phys. 136, 2012.
  15. Drouin B.J., S. Yu, J. C. Pearson, H. Gupta, "Terahertz Spectroscopy for Space Applications, 2.5-2.7: THz Spectra of HD, H2O and NH3" Journal of Molecular Structure Special Issue on THz Spectroscopy, 1006, 2-12, 2011.
  16. Drouin B.J., S. Yu, "Acetylene Spectra near 2.6 THz" Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy 269(2), 254-256, 2011.
  17. Drouin B.J., S. Yu, C.E. Miller, H.S.P. Mueller, F. Lewen, S.Bruenken, H. Habara, "Terahertz spectroscopy of oxygen,O2, 3Σg and 1Δ electronic states", Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 111, 1167-1173, 2010.
  18. Drouin B.J., S. Yu, J.C. Pearson, H.S.P. Mueller, "High resolution spectroscopy of CH3D and 13CH3D", Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer 110(18) 2077-2081, 2009.
  19. Drouin, B.J., R. R. Gamache, "Temperature Dependent Air Broadened Linewidths of Ozone Rotational Transitions" Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, 251(1-2), 1-3, 2008.
  20. Drouin, B.J., "Temperature dependent pressure induced linewidths of O2 and 18O16O transitions in nitrogen, oxygen and air", Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 105 (3): 450-458, 2007.
  21. Drouin, B.J., "Submillimeter measurements of N2 and air broadening of hypochlorous acid," Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 103 (3): 558-564, 2007.
  22. Drouin, B.J., J. C. Pearson, A. Walters, V. Lattanzi "THz Measurements of Propane" Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, 240 (2): 227-237, 2006.
  23. Drouin, B. J., F.W. Maiwald, "Extended THz measurements of nitrous oxide, N2O," Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, 236 (2): 260-262, 2006.

Recent Peer-reviewed Non-first Author Publications

  1. Egbert, S.C., Sung, K., Coburn, S.C., Drouin, B.J., Rieker, G.B., “Water-Vapor Absorption Database using Dual Comb Spectroscopy from 300-1300 K Part II: Air-broadened H2O, 6600 to 7650 cm−1” J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Trans., 318, 108940, 2024.
  2. Egbert, S.C., Sung, K., Coburn, S.C., Drouin, B.J., Rieker, G.B., “Water-Vapor Absorption Database using Dual Comb Spectroscopy from 300-1300 K Part I: Pure H2O, 6600 to 7650 cm−1” J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Trans., 318, 108940, 2024.
  3. Kahn, B., Bertossa, C., Chen, X., Drouin, B., Hokanson, E., Huang, X., L'Ecuyer, T., Mattingly, K., Merrelli, A., Michaels, T., Miller, N., Donat, F., Maestri, T., Martinazzo, M., “The Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE) principal component-based cloud mask: A simulation experiment” submitted to Atmos. Meas. Tech. (AMT), October, 2023.
  4. Taylor, T.E., O'Dell, C.W., Baker, D., Bruegge, C., Chang, A., Chapsky, L., Chatterjee, A., Cheng, C., Chevallier, F., Crisp, D., Dang, L., Drouin, B., Eldering, A., Feng, L., Fisher, B., Fu, D.J., Gunson, M., Haemmerle, V., Keller, G.R., Kiel, M., Kuai, L., Kurosu, T., Lambert, A., Laughner, J., Lee, R., Liu, J.J., Mandrake, L., Marchetti, Y., McGarragh, G., Merrelli, A., Nelson, R.R., Osterman, G., Oyafuso, F., Palmer, P.I., Payne, V.H., Rosenberg, R., Somkuti, P., Spiers, G., To, C., Weir, B., Wennberg, P.O.,Yu, S.S., Zong, J. “Evaluating the consistency between OCO-2 and OCO-3 XCO2 estimates derived from the NASA ACOS version 10 retrieval algorithm”, Atmos. Meas. Tech. 16(12), 3172-3209, 2023
  5. Miller, N.B., Merrelli, A., L’Ecuyer, T.S., Drouin, B.J., “Simulated Clear-Sky Water Vapor and Temperature Retrievals from PREFIRE Measurements”, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech. 40(6), 645-659, 2023.
  6. Xie, Y., Huang. X., Chen, X., L’Ecuyer, T.S., Drouin, B.J., “Joint Use of Far-Infrared and Mid-Infrared Observation for Sounding Retrievals: Learning from the Past for Upcoming Far-Infrared Missions” Earth and Space Science, 10(3) 2023, 10.1029/2022EA002684
  7. Sung, K.Y., Wishnow, E.H., Drouin, B.J., Manceron, L., Verseils, M., Benner, D.C., Nixon, C.A., “The rotational spectrum of HD broadened by H2 at temperatures between 100-296 K” J. Quant. Spectrosc. & Radiat. Trans. 295, 108412, 2023. 10.1016.j.jqsrt.2022.108412
  8. Xie, Y., Huang, X.L., Chen, X.H., L'Ecuyer T.S., Drouin, B.J., Wang, J., “ Retrieval of Surface Spectral Emissivity in Polar Regions Based on the Optimal Estimation Method”, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 127(5) e2021JD035677, 2022. DOI10.1029/2021JD035677
  9. Nemchick, D.J., Hakopian, H., Drouin, B.J., Tang, A.J., Alonso-delPino, M., Chattopadhyay, G., Chang M-C. F., “180-GHz pulsed CMOS transmitter for molecular sensing”, IEEE Trans. THz Sci. & Tech. 469-476, 11(5), 2021.
  10. Gordon, I., Rothman L.R., et al. “The HITRAN2020 molecular spectroscopic database”, J. Quant. Spectrosc. & Radiat. Trans. 277, 107949, 2021. 10.1016.j.jqsrt.2021.107949

Projects

OCO-2 - Orbiting Carbon Observatory
MLS - Microwave Limb Sounder
PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment)