Research Summary:

S. Sazykin’s main interests are the physics of the Earth’s magnetosphere and solar-wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions, including physics of the ring current, field-aligned currents, and ionospheric electric fields, investigated with numerical modeling and data comparisons. His experience includes extensive development and use of the Rice Convection Model, a long-standing and widely respected research tool of the Rice space plasma physics group, as well as work with first-principles multi-fluid ionosphere models in conjunction with the RCM, and more recently, development and applications of “hybrid” models combining the RCM drift-physics code with global ideal magnetohydrodynamics models describing the electrodynamics of the Earth’s magnetosphere, and with first-principles ionospheric and thermospheric models. These newly-developed models, which include tools and techniques of high-performance computing, are being used to address the physics and practical consequences of magnetospheric storms, substorms, and other geomagnetic disturbances, as well as guide data analysis from planetary plasma observations at Saturn.