11 Facts About Mikhail Budyko

Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko was a Soviet and Russian climatologist and one of the founders of physical climatology.

Mikhail Budyko pioneered studies on global climate and calculated temperature of Earth considering simple physical model of equilibrium in which the incoming solar radiation absorbed by the Earth's system is balanced by the energy re-radiated to space as thermal energy.

In 1963, Mikhail Budyko directed the compilation of an atlas illustrating the components of the Earth's heat balance.

Mikhail Budyko served as deputy director of the Geophysical Observatory until 1954, as director until 1972, and as head of the Division for Physical Climatology at the observatory from 1972 until 1975.

Mikhail Budyko was the first researcher to discuss the Pleistocene megafauna extinction.

In 1972, Mikhail Budyko published forecasts focusing on Arctic sea ice and global mean temperature extending out 100 years.

Mikhail Budyko calculated that a few tenths of one percent increase in solar radiation input could melt the icecaps.

Mikhail Budyko reckoned that, as early as 2050, the Arctic Ocean's ice cover could be melted away entirely.

In 1972, Mikhail Budyko calculated that a mere few tenths of one percent increase in solar radiation input could melt the ice caps.

In 1990, Mikhail Budyko was co-author of section five of the IPCC First Assessment Report, writing about equilibrium climate change and its implications for the future, and was a peer reviewer for the report.

Mikhail Budyko is believed to have been the first, in 1974, to put forth the concept of artificial solar radiation management with stratospheric sulfate aerosols if global warming ever became a pressing issue.