Richard H. Comfort Assistant Director Center for Space Plasma, Aeronomy, and Astrophysics Research Professor Department of Physics, Director Institute for Science Education Associate Director Alabama NASA EPSCoR The University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville, AL 35899 Office: CSPAAR TH-S135 phone: 256-824-6663 fax: 256-824-6575 email: comfortr@cspar.uah.edu

Research Biography

Dr. Comfort received the A.B. degree in Physics (cum laude) from Harvard University in 1963. In that year he was commissoned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, serving four years of active duty at the U.S. Army Missile and Munitions Center School, Redstone Arsenal, AL. During this period he became part-time graduate studies in Physics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He received the Army Commendation Medal and was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain in 1967. At that time, he joined the Northrop Corporation, Huntsville, AL, supporting space environment programs at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Following continued part-time graduate studies, he received his M.S. (1969) and Ph.D. (1975) degrees in Physics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. His dissertation title was Kinetic Description of Ionospheric Dynamics in a Three-Fluid Approximation. In 1975, he left Northrop to accept an NAS/NRC Resident Research Associateship at NASA/MSFC, where he worked with Dr. Einar Tandberg-Hanssen and others on problems in Solar MHD. In 1977, Dr. Comfort joined UAH where he has pursued an active research program focused on analysis of low enery plasma data from magnetospheric satellites and related mathematical modeling. He is author or co-author of 54 scientific articles and has been principal investigator or co-investigator for more than a dozen contracts or grants. He is a co-investigator on the Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiement (TIDE) and Plasma Source Instrument (PSI) on the ISTP Polar spacecraft. His graduate students have received four Ph.D. and six M.S. degrees. He has served on the supervisory committees of 25 Ph.D. graduates and is currently serving on four Ph.D. committees. He has reviewed papers for the Journal of Geophysical Research and proposals for NSF and NASA.

Interests

Scuba Diving Sigma Xi - Research Honor Society Organic Gardening Snow Skiing Racquet Sports Rollerblading Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society

Some of His Past & Present Undergrad and Graduate Students

Paul Craven Victoria Coffey	Amy Bandas Barbara Giles
Catherine Venturini Heather Elliott Christina Oldenburger

Selected Publications

• Comfort, R.H., J.H. Waite, Jr., and C.R. Chappell, Thermal ion temperatures from the retarding ion mass spectrometer on DE-1, J. Geophys. Res., 90, 3475-3486, 1985.

• Newberry, I.T., R.H. Comfort, P.G. Richards, and C.R. Chappell, Thermal He+ in the plasmasphere: comparison of observations with numerical calculations, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 15265, 1989.

• Comfort, R.H. , and M.O. Chandler, Semi-empirical analytical model for the spin modulation of RPA fluxes, J. Spacecraft Rock., 27, 577 1990.

• Giles, B.L., C.R. Chappell, T.E. Moore, R.H. Comfort, and J.H. Waite, Jr., Statistical survey of pitch angle distribution in core (0-50eV) ions from Dynamics Explorer 1: Outflow in the auroral zone, polar cap, and cusp, in press J. Geophys. Res., 1994.

• Craven, P.D., R.H. Comfort, P.G. Richards, and J. Grebowsky, Comparison of modeled N+, O+, H+, and He+ in the mid-latitude ionosphere wiht mean densities and temperatures from Atmospheric Explorer, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 257, 1995.

• Comfort, R.H., Richards, P.G., P.D. Craven , and M.O. Chandler, Problems in simulating ion temperatures in low density flux tubes, AGU Monograph 93, Cross-scale Coupling in Space Plasmas, ed. James L. Horwitz, Nagendra Singh, and James L. Burch, p.155-160, 1995.

• Gallagher, D.L., P.D. Craven, R.H. Comfort, and T.E. Moore, On the azimuthal variation of the equatorial plasmapause, J. Geophys. Res., 100m 23597, 1995.

• Comfort, R.H., P.D. Craven, and P.G. Richards, A modified thermal conductivity for low density plasma magnetic flux tubes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22, 2457, 1995.

• Comfort, R.H., Thermal structure of the plasmasphere, Adv. Space Res., 17, (10)175, 1996.

• Craven, P.S., D.L. Gallagher, and R.H. Comfort, The relative concentration of He+ in the inner magnetosphere as observed by DE1/RIMS, J. Geophys. Res., in press, 1997.

last updated 9/16/97