HGSSD History of Geo- and Space Sciences Discussions HGSSD Hist. Geo Space. Sci. Discuss. 2749-117X Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/hgss-2026-8 History of the Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie and its scientific projects (1958–2004) Schlegel Kristian https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0331-0800 1 Wolfenbüttel, 38300, Germany 25 06 2026 2026 1 31 Copyright: © 2026 Kristian Schlegel 2026 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://hgss.copernicus.org/preprints/hgss-2026-8/ The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://hgss.copernicus.org/preprints/hgss-2026-8/hgss-2026-8.pdf

The <em>Max-Planck-Institut f&uuml;r Aeronomie</em> located in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, had a clearly defined beginning and end. It commenced on 1 January 1958 with the merging of the <em>Max-Planck- Institut f&uuml;r Ionosph&auml;renforschung</em> (ionospheric research) and the <em>Max-Planck-Institut f&uuml;r Physik der Stratosph&auml;re</em> (physics of the stratosphere), and it concluded in 2004 with the renaming in <em>Max-Planck-Institut f&uuml;r Sonnensystemforschung</em> (solar system research &ndash; MPS). This manuscript reviews the organization, scientific research, and development that took place over these 47 years.