Research Interests
Climate studies in Polar Regions (Greenland and Antarctica) through process studies, modeling and satellite observations to address past, current and future climate variability and trends, and the response of ice sheets to climate warming and resulting sea level rise.
Steffen's research was supported by NASA Cryospheric Sciences, NASA/GSFC, and NSF/Office of Polar Programs for climate system modeling, remote sensing application related to ocean-climate-sea ice interactions. He was the Chair of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) program, participates in the NASA Earth Science Subcommittee advising board, the SEARCH science steering committee, the NSF Summit Observatory steering committee, the IUGG Commission for Cryospheric Sciences as the former Vice President, and he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Polar Research Board.