[AdrianR]

I cannot find anything on him either. But Pulkovo Observatory is one of major (possibly, the major) Observatories in Russia and he is listed on their stuff page. They list his degree as Dr. Sc. which is the second doctoral degree in Russia, after the regular Ph.D. (which is called Cand. Sc.).

So, he appears to be an established scientist and I am confused why google does not find him. The article might be transcribing his name into English differently from the normal way. That is often a problem with Russian names.

[Sam Cree]

I did just find out that Pulkovo (or whatever the H) is one major observatory. So he is on the staff and has doctorates? Interesting. I've wondered at times if solar activity was not a cause for climate change - the fact that it is happening on Mars argues for that (strongly).

In any case, it would seem apparent that climate is too complicated to allow high confidence (as the NHC puts it) forecasting. William Gray doesn't think so at any rate.