Since the 1940's, investigations of the transformations of solar energy at the earth's surface have been carried out in the Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory in Leningrad. The results of these investigations have been used to solve various problems in climatology, hydrology, oceanography, physical geography, and other disciplines. The first summary of these investigations was published in 1956 in the author's book, "Тепловой Баланс Земной Поверхности" ("The Heat Balance of the Earth's Surface"). In the years since this book was published, many newer works on energy balance embracing a wider range of problems have been written. The principles that govern the heat balance of both the earth's surface and the atmosphere have been studied in these works. In recent years much attention has been paid to the problem of the effect of climatic energetic factors on biological processes. In the course of these studies a number of basic concepts have been found that connect the activity of living organisms with climatic conditions.
The present book is a new summary of investigations in the field of solar energy transformations at the earth's surface and in the atmosphere. Its title indicates that special attention is paid to the problems of bioclimatology. As the book covers a wide array of problems relating to several fields of natural sciences, the statements are necessarily brief and limited to the data of investigations conducted in the Main Geophysical Observatory.
It should be noted that the variety of problems discussed are united by a common approach, which is the study of energetic processes forming the geographical conditions on our planet.