BLACK HOLES (BHS) ARE ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING OBJECTS IN ASTROPHYSICS. PREDICTED BY GENERAL RELATIVITY BEFORE THEIR DISCOVERY THEY REPRESENT THE ULTIMATE TEST FOR PHYSICS IN STRONG GRAVITY. STELLAR-MASS BHS ARE THE END-PRODUCTS OF STELLAR EVOLUTION WHILE SUPERMASSIVE BHS ARE KEY AGENTS IN SETTING THE STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF MOST IF NOT ALL GALAXIES. ACCRETING BHS EMIT COPIOUS AMOUNT OF RADIATION IN X-RAYS AND PRESENT VERY SIMILAR PHENOMENOLOGY REGARDLESS OF THEIR MASS. THE OBSERVATIONAL DATA OF THESE SYSTEMS IS TYPICALLY MODELED USING TWO DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES: (A) X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY BY OBSERVING THEIR FLUX VS. ENERGY SPECTRA; AND (B) TIMING ANALYSIS BY LOOKING AT THE FLUX VARIATIONS OVER DIFFERENT TIME-SCALES. OVER DECADES THESE TWO APPROACHES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED IN SEPARATE WAYS ALTHOUGH THEIR PHYSICS IS INTRINSICALLY CONNECTED. IN SOME CASES THEIR PREDICTIONS FOR THE SAME QUANTITIES HAVE BEEN FOUND TO BE IN STRONG DISAGREEMENT LIKELY DUE TO OVER-SIMPLIFIED ASSUMPTIONS AND TO THE LACK OF CONSISTENCY BETWEEN THESE TECHNIQUES. .OUR GOAL IS TO PUT THE SPECTRAL AND TIMING DATA ON EQUAL FOOTING BY DEVELOPING A UNIFIED AND SELF-CONSISTENT METHODOLOGY FOR THE ANALYSIS OF X-RAY DATA FROM ACCRETING BHS WHICH WILL BE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AND WILL BECOME THE NEW STANDARD FOR STUDYING BLACK HOLE ACCRETION. OUR TEAM HAS ADVANCED THE USE OF FOURIER-RESOLVED TIME-LAG ANALYSIS WHICH HAS REVEALED X-RAY REVERBERATION OFF THE INNER ACCRETION DISC. NOW WE AIM TO PUSH THESE TECHNIQUES BEYOND SIMPLE TIME-LAG ANALYSIS AND TO MODEL THE SPECTRAL-TIMING DATA WITH A UNIFIED MANNER. OUR MODEL WILL TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ALL THE MOST RELEVANT AND UP-TO-DATE ATOMIC PHYSICS RADIATIVE TRANSFER AND RELATIVISTIC EFFECTS IN A SELF-CONSISTENT AND TIME-DEPENDENT FRAMEWORK. THE APPLICATION OF THIS MODEL TO OBSERVATIONAL DATA WILL ALLOW US TO PREDICT SPECTRAL AND TEMPORAL OBSERVABLES (E.G. FLUX SPECTRUM AND TIME-LAGS) AND TO DERIVE ACCURATE ESTIMATES FOR KEY PHYSICAL PARAMETERS SUCH AS THE BH ANGULAR MOMENTUM STATE OF THE ACCRETION DISK AND CORONAL GEOMETRY AMONG OTHERS. THE SYNERGY BETWEEN THESE TWO TECHNIQUES OFFERS A POTENTIALLY TRANSFORMATIVE NEW VIEW TO THE PHYSICS OF ACCRETION IN THE STRONG GRAVITY REGIME. ..SPECIFICALLY BY INTEGRATING SPECTRAL AND TIMING TECHNIQUES WE WILL BE ABLE TO:. - PERFORM FOURIER SPECTRAL TIMING ANALYSIS ON A SAMPLE OF 50 VARIABLE NEARBY SEYFERT GALAXIES FROM THE XMM-NEWTON NUSTAR AND SUZAKU ARCHIVES PROVIDING A BASELINE SET OF OBSERVATIONS TO MODEL. - MODEL THE RESPONSE OF THE ACCRETION DISK TO AN EXTERNAL AND VARIABLE SOURCE OF X-RAY PHOTONS. - EXPLORE THE EFFECTS OF LOCAL IONIZATION IN THE ACCRETION DISK AS WELL AS THE EFFECT OF IONIZATION GRADIENTS. - STUDY THE GEOMETRY AND LOCATION OF THE CORONA THE EXTENSION OF THE ACCRETION DISK AND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THESE TWO STRUCTURES. - DETERMINE THE ROLE OF THE DISK'S DENSITY AND OTHER PARAMETERS IN THE SPECTRAL AND TIMING PRODUCTS. .THE RELEVANCE OF OUR PROPOSED STUDY TO THIS NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT IS CLEAR BECAUSE OUR WORK RESPONDS DIRECTLY TO THE PRIORITIES LAID OUT FOR THE ASTROPHYSICS DIVISION IN THE SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE (SMD) SCIENCE PLAN FOR 2014 NAMELY:. - ASTROPHYSICS/SMD STRATEGIC GOAL #1: PROBE THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF OUR UNIVERSE INCLUDING THE NATURE OF BLACK HOLES DARK ENERGY DARK MATTER AND GRAVITY. .- ASTROPHYSICS/SMD STRATEGIC GOAL #2: EXPLORE THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXIES STARS AND PLANETS THAT MAKE UP OUR UNIVERSE. .