SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE OF MIKHAIL ARAMAISOVICH PETROSSIANTS (ON THE OCCASION OF CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH)
This year we celebrate centenary of the birth of Mikhail Aramaisovich Petrossiants - Honored Professor of the Moscow University, who was the prominent Russian meteorologist, founder of the Russian school of tropical meteorology and organizer of meteorological science. M.A. Petrossiants was born in 1919 in Andijan. From his younger days he was interested in geophysics. In 1941 he graduated the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Central Asian University, majoring in geophysics. In March 1943 he joined the Red Army participating in combat from the Dnieper to Vienna and was awarded orders and medals. From 1948 to 1958 working at the Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR Mikhail Aramaisovich progressed from junior researcher to the Head of Department. At the end of 1958 he started working in the hydrometeorological service and was appointed the Director of the Central Asian Research Hydrometeorological Institute (SANIGMI). In 1965 he defended the doctoral dissertation: «Investigation of the influence of topography on synoptic processes and cyclonic activity in Central Asia». In 1967 he was appointed Director of the Obninsk Institute of Applied Geophysics. He coordinated the projects on tropical meteorology in the USSR and headed the «TROPEX-72» and «TROPEX-74» national climate experiments, the latter being the USSR national contribution to the International Atlantic Tropical Experiment (ATEP). In 1973-1981 he was the Head of the Hydrometeorological Center of the USSR. During this period, he focused on the modernization of computing machinery and graphics devices and the improvement of meteorological data receipt and processing. From 1981 to 2005 he was the Head of the Department of Meteorology and Climatology of the MSU Faculty of Geography. He made notable contribution to the development of scientific, educational and managerial activities and published a number of important research works of high originality and novelty. His research interests were mainly focused on weather forecast via synoptic and hydrodynamic methods, tropical meteorology and monsoon investigations.