History
The history of the institute is closely related to Walter Dieminger, who was head of the Luftwaffe test center at Rechlin at the Müritz from 1934 on. After being renamed to the "Centre for Radio Transmission" in 1943 and moving to Leobersdorf in 1944, the institute was united with the Fraunhofer institute from Freiburg at Ried in the Innkreis. After the war an Allied commission decided to move the institute to Lindau am Harz, where buildings of the Technical University of Hanover already existed. The convoy arrived on the 2nd and 3 March 1946. During 1948 the radio institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society was transferred from the Fraunhofer Society to the Max Planck Society and renamed "Institute for Ionosphere Research" in 1949. In 1950 the US Air Force paid for the construction of an ionospheric echolot system. The full transfer from Fraunhofer to Max Planck Society and the appointment of W. Dieminger as Director followed by the transfer of the Max Planck Institute of Stratosphere Research from Weisenau near Ravensburg to Lindau and another renaming to "Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy" completed the built up.
Erhard Keppler became the science lead in the first German satellite Azur (in copertation with NASA) and with him a small group of scientists dedicated to work with satellites was established in Lindau. The institute was selected to build part of the instrumentation of the satellite which was launched in November 1969. Instruments of the Helios probes another German NASA cooperation were also built by the institute.
After the retirement of W. Dieminger in 1974 the focus changed from atmospheric research to space research. The Institute participated in a long series of space missions like Galileo, Ulysses, Cluster, SOHO, Cassini-Huygens, Rosetta, Mars Express Venus Express and was responsible for most of the camera system of the Giotto mission to Comet Halley. The framing camera on board of the NASA mission Dawn to the asteroid belt was built at the institute.
The institute was leading organization in the development, construction and scientific analysis of the sunrise (telescope). The telescope is solar telescope in the ultraviolet, that hangs from a high altitude balloon. The five day maiden flight was conducted in June 2009.
The biggest changes to the Institute resulted from German unification with the retraction of two of the four directors of the institute in 1998 and 2004 after the retirement of Hagfors and Rosenbauer. The institute was renamed "Max Planck Institute of Solar System Research" in 2004 after the last director concerned with Ionosphere and Stratosphere research retired. The two remaining groups, of director S. Solanki dedicated to the sun and heliosphere and of U. Christensen dedicated to planets and comets form the present-day Institute.
Since 2004, the institute has published the open access review journal Living Reviews in Solar Physics.
The Institute together with the Max Planck Society decided to move the institute closer to the University of Göttingen. It is planned to move the institute by April 2014 next to the physics department of the to the University of Göttingen.
Read more about this topic: Max Planck Institute For Solar System Research
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