Ankit Barik

Planetary Scientist

Professional Summary

I study the fluid dynamics and magnetic fields of planetary and stellar interiors using high-performance MHD simulations, and work as a research software engineer building physics-based simulation pipelines.

Research Interests

Planetary and Stellar Interiors MHD and Dynamo theory Fluid dynamics High performance computing

Featured

Our group’s outreach video on the magnetic fields of the planets in our solar system, paired with planetMagFields — an interactive web app for exploring planetary magnetic field data, built on the open-source planetMagFields Python package.

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Codes I Build

MagIC

3D MHD code — used in 170+ papers

Kore

Spectral MHD eigenvalue solver

planetMagFields

Visualize planetary magnetic field data

Research

Inertial Modes

Global oscillations of rotating fluids, restored by the Coriolis force - from a laboratory experiment to the Sun, and where they come from in the first place.

Turbulence

How ordered flow breaks down into turbulence - in a laboratory rotating fluid experiment, and in the ice shell of an icy moon.

Planetary Dynamos

Dynamo simulations explaining the magnetic fields of other worlds — from Mars’ hemispherical field to the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn.

Scientific Software

Open-source codes I build and maintain for simulating and analyzing planetary and stellar magnetohydrodynamics.

Magnetic Data

Extracting planetary magnetic field models from spacecraft and satellite data.

Unpublished

Ongoing and informal work that hasn’t (yet) turned into a peer-reviewed paper.

Publications

Lujendra Ojha, Ankit Barik, Jacob Buffo (2026). Limited direct fluid exchange between the deep subsurface ocean and the shallow subsurface environment of Europa. Nature Astronomy.

Article Metrics Related Project DOI

J. R. Fuentes, Ankit Barik, Jim Fuller (2026). Excitation of Inertial Modes in 3D Simulations of Rotating Convection in Planets and Stars. The Astrophysical Journal.

Related Project DOI

C. Yan, A. Barik, S. Stanley, A. Mittelholz, A.-C. Plesa, C.-L. Johnson (2025). Mars' Hemispheric Magnetic Field From a Full-Sphere Dynamo. Geophysical Research Letters.

DOI

A. Barik, S. A. Triana, M. Hoff, J. Wicht (2024). Transition to Turbulence in the Wide-Gap Spherical Couette System. Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

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Teaching