the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 25 Jun 2026
History of the Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie and its scientific projects (1958–2004)
Abstract. The Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie located in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, had a clearly defined beginning and end. It commenced on 1 January 1958 with the merging of the Max-Planck- Institut für Ionosphärenforschung (ionospheric research) and the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik der Stratosphäre (physics of the stratosphere), and it concluded in 2004 with the renaming in Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (solar system research – MPS). This manuscript reviews the organization, scientific research, and development that took place over these 47 years.
Competing interests: At least one of the (co-)authors is a member of the editorial board of History of Geo- and Space Sciences.
Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this paper. While Copernicus Publications makes every effort to include appropriate place names, the final responsibility lies with the authors. Views expressed in the text are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.- Preprint
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Status: open (until 23 Jul 2026)
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RC1: 'Comment on hgss-2026-8', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 Jul 2026
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AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Kristian Schlegel, 06 Jul 2026
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The author thanks referee #1 for his valuable comments and suggestions for improvement. I have taken all into account in the revised version.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-2026-8-AC1 -
RC3: 'Reply on AC1', Anonymous Referee #1, 06 Jul 2026
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Thank you very much.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-2026-8-RC3
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RC3: 'Reply on AC1', Anonymous Referee #1, 06 Jul 2026
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AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Kristian Schlegel, 06 Jul 2026
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RC2: 'Comment on hgss-2026-8', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Jul 2026
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Review of the manuscript: “History of the Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie and its scientific projects (1958-200 4), by Kristian Schlegel
With this history paper, the author, Kristian Schlegel, has done a great service to an institute which emerged out of two unrelated pre-war and wartime activities and settled on a country site far away from the nearest university for reasons of a clean radio sky. The author has adopted a very concise stile, which was most appropriate in view of the great number of activities and projects, in which the MPAe was involved. It is well written and, as far as I can judge, complete with respect to the scientific projects, as promised by the title. However, concerning the scientific activities, there could have been a little more flesh. Of course, this was the author’s decision and what he is submitting is very much worth publishing as is.
What do I mean with flesh? As a reader of this paper one may get a bit exhausted after having tried to digest the enormous number of activities which it is presenting. At one point one may ask: What was great, what was world class? The other aspect I refer to with the word flesh, is a reference to the human interactions or initiatives. All the projects presented in this history have just been there without an initiator being mentioned. Of course, it would be by far too much to clarify this role with each project. For that purpose, there are many appropriate citations. And in Chapter 4, the role, Ian Axford played in introducing a new way of letting the Institute operate, is well documented. However, it was not made clear that it was also his initiative to attract with Helmut Rosenbauer one of the world-best instrument builders or with Vytenis Vasyliunas one of the best theorists in this field. To my knowledge it was also Ian Axford who attracted Ray Greenwald to build up the STARE radar.
And by the way, in the beginning of Chapter 4 the year of Axford’s very decisive appearance at MPAe was not quoted, only the year in which he had been knighted. Of course, there is a great figure with the dates of all directors at the end of the manuscript.
Another example: On line 413, it is very appropriately stated that the imaging of the nucleus of comet Halley by the HMC camera of H. U. Keller made the MPAe the world-famous. However, there was another outstanding achievement which almost disappeared in the text, the incredible way of the construction of the Rosetta Lander, Philae, by Helmut Rosenbauer. The only mentioning it found was: “build by the MPAe” in line 425 and was not even worth a figure.
I repeat, the paper can be published as is. What I have written above is meant as something for the author to think and possibly act about.
I found two small mistakes: In lines 403 and 423 the plural of spacecraft has to be spacecraft.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-2026-8-RC2 -
AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Kristian Schlegel, 08 Jul 2026
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The author thanks Referre #2 for careful reading his manuscript and for his valuable comments and suggestions.
In oder to add some more „flesh“ (as the referee named it) the following sentences/additions will be inserted in the revised manuscript, as well as a Figure of Philae:line 155: With the appointment of William Ian Axford as director in 1974…
lines 164-166: It also proved highly advantageous for the MPAe that Axford was able to recruit two prominent scientists as additional directors: Helmut Rosenbauer one of the world-best instrument builders and Vytenis Vasyliunas one of the best theorists in the institute's field of research.
line 291: These particle analyzers were world-class instruments and proved to be highly accurate and reliable. They were …
lines 435,436: The lander Philae, an outstanding construction led by Rosenbauer (Bibring et.al. 2007, Fig. 13), was build at the MPAe (in collaboration with the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, France and the DLR) and landed …
lienes 437,438: Philea was the first instrument of mankind to land on a comet.
lines 560,561: Bibring, JP., Rosenbauer, H., Boehnhardt, H. et al. The Rosetta Lander (“Philae”) Investigations. Space Sci Rev 128, 205–220 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-006-9138-2, 2007.
Fig. 13: The Lander Philae of the Rosetta project. It was anchored to the comet by screws at the and of the three shock absorbing legs and contained ten scientific instruments (source: DLR).
The errors have been corrected.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-2026-8-AC2
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AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Kristian Schlegel, 08 Jul 2026
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The topic of this historical paper is an important one, and the entire paper is comprehensive, very well organised and well written. Many successful research programmes and different experiments are described briefly, and a few failures (due to rocket failures). The paper includes 13 valuable and varied figures.
I suggest some detailed improvements.
Line 50. Please change deceased to died.
Line 72,73,110,213,214,216,257,286,376,394. ... e.g., ...
Line 93. Skua
Line 102. A comprehensive ...
Line 165. ... mountains.
Line 204. .. allows us to ...
Line 207. Through ...
Line 241. It would to provide an example or two.
Line 313. ... scientific ...
Line 352. September
Lin3 405. balloon-borne ...
Line 430. October
Line 432. ... led ...
Line 520. conferences
Line 522. Please change into to as