Michiel van den Broeke
"We measure precisely how the climate is affecting the ice caps"
Michiel Van den Broeke is Professor of Polar Meteorology at the Faculty of Sciences and conducts research into polar ice melt and the resulting rise in sea levels. To do this, he uses information collected by satellites and automated weather stations at the UU. His research is part of a large international network spanning dozens of research institutes in various countries, whose ultimate goal is to better understand the interaction between ice and climate in order to thereby more accurately predict sea level rises.
‘We are good at combining measurement and modelling’
Van den Broeke and his group are helping to develop a special model that can map out how the ice caps will behave over the next five hundred years. He is also training people to do this. These scientists are multidisciplinary, knowledgeable about the atmosphere, ice and ocean, which are all important components in the climate system. By combining measurement and modelling, Van den Broeke wants to make predictions that are useful both now and in the (distant) future.