The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) represents the merger of the Universität Karlsruhe with the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Both partners are joining their forces in KIT in order to achieve an unprecedented quality of cooperation. With roundabout 8,000 employees and an annual budget of about 700 million Euros, KIT has the potential of becoming a leading institution in selected science disciplines in the world.
The Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research consists of four divisions, two of which are jointly operated by the Campus South (former University of Karlsruhe) and the Campus North (former Karlsruhe Research Centre). They work on atmospheric processes of the troposphere (IMK-TRO) as well as of atmospheric trace gases and remote sensing (IMK-ASF). A third division, the Atmospheric Aerosol Research (IMK-AAF) is jointly operated with the Institut für Umweltphysik of the University of Heidelberg. Since January 2002 the Institute of the Research of the Atmospheric Environment, former part of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, has become the fourth division of the IMK as IMK-IFU.
The Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research contributes to the following Program Topics (PT) of the HGF Research Program "Earth and Environment", Program proposal 2 "Atmosphere and Climate":
- Program Topic 1: Climate and hydrological cycle.
- Program Topic 2: Regional climate changes and impacts.
- Program Topic 3: Trace substances in the troposphere.
- Program Topic 4: Stratosphere and tropopause region in a changing environment.