I'm a postdoctoral researcher at IMAU at Utrecht University, where I study the future climate and mass balance of Antarctica. My research is part of two EU-funded projects, PolarRES and OCEAN ICE. I work with regional climate models and study atmospheric processes such as precipitation, moisture transport, wind patterns and their interaction with the ice shelves and glaciers of Antarctica.

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​My interest in polar climates started during a study semester on Svalbard, where I became fascinated by how the ocean, ice, and atmosphere interact. 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 in sea-ice modelling and an internship in which I studied the impact of atmospheric moisture and energy transport on sea ice. For my PhD 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. What drives me is a passion for understanding how these extreme environments are changing and what that means for global climate and communities.

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Publications:

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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. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JD042021

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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 

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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, 2022.

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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