The Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) at KIT was founded more than three decades ago jointly by the former Karlsruhe Research Center, today's KIT North Campus, and the former University of Karlsruhe, today's KIT South Campus, and was thus a model for the establishment of KIT. It bundled research and teaching in the field of climate sciences and meteorology. In the course of the further development of KIT governance, the former IMK departments became four independent institutes, which jointly participate in Helmholtz program research in the field of Earth and Environment and operate the large atmospheric observation platform Karlsruhe Integrated Atmospheric Observatory (KIAOS). The work focuses on atmospheric processes in the troposphere (IMK-TRO), atmospheric trace gases and remote sensing (IMK-ASF), atmospheric aerosol research (IMK-AAF) and soil-atmosphere interaction (IMK-IFU in Garmisch-Partenkirchen).