Mikhail_Budyko

Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko (20 January 1920 – 10 December 2001) was a Soviet and Russian climatologist and one of the founders of physical climatology. He 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.
Budyko's groundbreaking book, Heat Balance of the Earth's Surface (Тепловой баланс земной поверхности), published in 1956, transformed climatology from a qualitative into a quantitative physical science. These new physical methods based on heat balance were quickly adopted by climatologists around the world. In 1963, Budyko directed the compilation of an atlas illustrating the components of the Earth's heat balance.