Kierunki i ważniejsze wyniki badań naturalnych i antropogenicznych zmian klimatu Polski

The fundamental research conducted within the Department of Climatology of the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies (previously Institute of Geography) at the Warsaw University concerns primarily the climate of Poland. Tnis theme is contained in the research plans of the department since 1952. The theme would only undergo modifications as to its more precise formulation, referring frequently to the fresh currents in climatology. The research in the domain of climate of Poland was initiated by Professor Romuald Gumiński, the first head of the Department of Climatology of the Institute of Geography at the Warsaw University (1951-1952). The main research directions taken up at the Department of Climatology under the leadership of Professor Wincenty Okołowicz (the head of the Department in the years 1953-1973), with considerable assistance from Ass. Professor Zofia Kaczorowska (who worked at the Department between 1951 and 1972), include: 1. The structure and regionalisation of the climate of Poland, 2. The climate of the north-eastern Poland, 3. The climate and bio-climate of towns. The primary object of research at the Department is nowadays constituted by the problem of natural and anthropogenic changes in the climate of Europe, with special consideration of Poland. Within this domain attention should be paid to such subjects as: 1. Empirical models of spatial and temporal variability of climate, 2. Periodical changes of climate and their causes, 3. Secular trends in climate changes, 4. Anthropogenic climate changes, 5. Forecasts of changes in the climate of Poland in the 21 st century. All of these research problems are being approached through both individual and team projects. The most important results of the teamwork include, first of all, the 14 volumes of the Alias of interdependencies of the meteorological and geographic parameters in Poland (in Polish), published in the years 1974-2000. A sui generis synthesis of the individual work on the climate of Poland is constituted by the two issues of "Prace i Sudia Geograficzne", published (in Polish) under the titles of New methods of inquiry inio the climate of Poland ( 1997) and From the study of the climate of Poland 91998). The first of these issues was published on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the Department, while the second - to commemorate the 100th anniversary of birth of Professor Romuald Gumiński.