Polar research, art and photography 

Research

I'm a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU) at Utrecht University, where I study the current and future climate and mass balance of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. I work with both observations and regional climate modelling to study the interactions between the atmosphere and ice shelves, ice sheets and glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland. My main research interests are in understanding what atmospheric conditions lead to surface melt in Antarctica and Greenland, how to model the processes driving melt, and how these conditions and melt may change in the future.

​My interest in polar climates started during a study semester on Svalbard, where I catched the well-known 'polar bug'. Since then, I've focused my studies on understanding the interactions between the atmosphere and cryosphere. During my master's in meteorology I focused on Arctic climate, through a thesis and internship project related to Arctic sea ice and atmospheric moisture and energy transport. For my PhD in New Zeland I switched poles, diving into the meteorology and glacial mass balance in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. As part of the Antarctic Science Platform I've been lucky enough to visit Antarctica twice, where I helped maintain weather stations and setting up new measurement tools. In my postdoc I am expanding my research to the entire Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and work with the regional climate model RACMO to understand the current and future melt and mass loss of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

Key publications

  • Hofsteenge, M. G., van de Berg, W. J., van Dalum, C., Verro, K., van Tiggelen, M., and van den Broeke, M. (2026): On the non-linear response of Antarctic ice shelf surface melt to warming, The Cryosphere, 20, 4747–4766, doi:  10.5194/tc-20-4747-2026.
  • Hofsteenge, M.G.,  Verro, K., Amory, C. et al. Historic and future surface mass balance contributions to Antarctic and Greenland freshwater fluxes from regional climate models. ESS Open Archive. 27 April 2026.
    doi: 10.22541/essoar.15002450/v1
  • Gilbert, E.*, Torres-Alavez*, J. A., Hofsteenge*, M. G., van de Berg, W. J., Boberg, F., Christensen, O. B., van Dalum, C. T., Fettweis, X., Gumber, S., Hansen, N., Kittel, C., Lambin, C., Maure, D., Mottram, R., Olesen, M., Orr, A., Phillips, T., van Tiggelen, M., Verro, K., and Mooney, P. A. (2026): The PolarRES dataset: a state-of-the-art regional climate model ensemble for understanding Antarctic climate. The Cryosphere, 20, 2629–2658, doi: 10.5194/tc-20-2629-2026.
  • Hofsteenge, M. G., Cullen, N. J., Sodemann, H., & Katurji, M. (2025): Synoptic drivers and moisture sources of snowfall in coastal Victoria Land, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. doi: 10.1029/2024JD042021
  • Hofsteenge, M.G., Cullen, N.J., Conway, J.P., Reijmer, C.H., van den Broeke, M.R., Katurji, M (2023): Meteorological drivers of melt at two nearby glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Journal of Glaciology, 1-13. doi: 10.1017/jog.2023.98
  • Hofsteenge, M. G., Cullen, N. J., Reijmer, C. H., van den Broeke, M., Katurji, M., and Orwin, J. F. (2022): The surface energy balance during foehn events at Joyce Glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. The Cryosphere, 16, 5041–5059, doi: 10.5194/tc-16-5041-2022.
  • Hofsteenge, M.G., Graversen, R.G., Rydsaa, J.H. et al. (2022): The impact of atmospheric Rossby waves and cyclones on the Arctic sea ice variability. Climate Dynamics. doi: 10.1007/s00382-022-06145-z