Academician Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko - founder of physical climatology. 100-th anniversary of the birth (20.01.1920-10.12.2001)
January 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of outstanding Russian scientist, Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has been working in Leningrad in the A.I. Voeykov Main Geophysical Observatory and the State Hydrological Institute. Mikhail Ivanovich was an outstanding scientist in the field of atmospheric physics, physical climatology and paleoclimatology. Scientific achievements of Mikhail Ivanovich and his colleagues changed the status of classical climatology. While previously this science was largely descriptive, they turned it into physical discipline having its own model based methodology. At present, physical climatology, as a prognostic science, occupies a worthy place among the Earth Sciences. High scientific erudition and deep knowledge of the Earth sciences at large allowed M.I. Budyko to make significant contribution not only to meteorology, atmospheric physics and climatology, but also to the global ecology and theory of evolution of the biosphere. Many decades ahead of time, in the early 1970s, he first formulated a concept of anthropogenic impacts on the climate system, which is still valid. He also proposed a methodology for controlling the global climate which allows to preserve or stabilize the modern climatic conditions within the range suitable for comfortable development of the biosphere and human society.