Max Robitzsch

Max Robitzsch (2 February 1887[1] – 10 June 1952[2]) was a German meteorological scientist and university professor. He invented the "Robitzsch Actinograph", a type of pyranometer[3][4] and wrote numerous scientific books and articles.[5]

Historical photo of the Spitsbergen observatory.

He was born in Höxter, Province of Westphalia. He also undertook an expedition into the Scandinavian arctic to research atmospheric phenomena, spending the 1912/1913 winter in Spitsbergen, Norway. His mission, together with Kurt Wegener, brother of Alfred Wegener, was to set up a meteorological observatory for the German Geophysical Observatory, which they did at the Crossbai, Ebeltofthafen (Ebeltofthamna in Norwegian). During the long winter stay, they and two helpers performed 275 pilot balloon soundings, 98 tethered balloon soundings and 19 probe launches with the help of a hang glider.[6] As of 2000, only some archeological remains of the obersvatory could be found.[7]

For much of his life (since at least 1917),[8] he worked as a professor at the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg (German Wikipedia) in Lindenberg, Brandenburg. During the Cold War, he there undertook numerous extensive radio sounding studies of the atmosphere with weather balloons, reputedly at the behalf of the Soviet occupation forces in East Germany.[9]

During January to May 1950, he was director of the Meteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg,[8][10] before later on becoming professor at (and possibly the director of) the Geophysical Institute of Leipzig, later subsumed in the University of Leipzig.[2]

References
  1. Max Robitzsch (database entry for Max Robitzsch in a surname database on tripple.net)
  2. Geschichte der meteorologischen Forschung an der Universitaet Leipzig Archived 2007-03-09 at the Wayback Machine ('History of meteorological research at the University of Leipzig', in German)
  3. Robitzsch Actinograph (definition from Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, McGraw-Hill, via Answers.com)
  4. Robitzsch Actinograph Archived 2007-08-16 at the Wayback Machine (from the Glossary of Meteorology, American Meteorological Society)
  5. Max Robitzsch (Author search results on WorldCat, the world's largest bibliographic database)
  6. Solution for the winter riddle Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine (with further reference from the AWIPEV newsletter, January/February 2006)
  7. "Das Deutsche Observatorium in Ebeltofthafen, Crossbai, Spitzbergen (1912–14) - Ein Besuch im Sommer 2000" (in German). Mitteilungen der DMG Heft 2/2001 (Auszüge). Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  8. 100 Jahre Meteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg des DWD - Chronologie ('Chronology', website of the Deutscher Wetterdienst, in German)
  9. Description of the 1939–1944 upper air data set (UA39_44) Version 1.0 - Brönimann, S.;Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Monday 31 March 2003
  10. Meteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg: Historie ('History', website of the Deutscher Wetterdienst, in German)
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