Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko was a 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, 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.
Life
Ethnically Belarussian, Budyko earned his M.Sc. in 1942 from the Division of Physics of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. As a researcher at the Leningrad Geophysical Observatory, he received his doctorate in physical and mathematical sciences in 1951. 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. In that year he was appointed director of the Division for Climate Change Research at the State Hydrological Institute in St. Petersburg.
Studies
He was the first researcher to discuss the Pleistocene megafauna extinction. Budyko published a study in 1969 outlining Arctic amplification, describing how Arctic sea ice decline affects Arctic temperatures due to the ice-albedo feedback. The study attracted significant attention since it hinted at the possibility for a runaway positive feedback within the global climate system. In 1972, Budyko calculated that a mere few tenths of one percent increase in solar radiation input could melt the icecaps. Moreover, his models similarly indicated that a 50% increase in atmospheric CO2 would melt all the polar ice, whereas reduction of the gas by half "can lead to a complete glaciation of the Earth." Due to the rising use of fossil fuels, at some time "comparatively soon... a substantial rise in air temperature will take place." As early as 2050, Budyko calculated, the Arctic Ocean's ice cover could be melted away entirely. In 1987 he published a study on Anthropogenic Climate Change, together with Yuri Izrael, dealing with climate impact assessment, concluding that parts of the northern hemisphere would gain some benefit from climate change. However, to the end of his life in 1998 he gave a speech titled, "Global Climate Warming and its Consequence" when accepting the Blue Planet Prize 1998, and concluding, "On balance, it is very difficult to conclude with higher accuracy whether the projected global warming would be globally beneficial to human society or not." In 1990, 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.
Climate engineering
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. This climate engineering proposal has been dubbed "Budyko's Blanket" in his honor.
