Gonzaga Prep graduate presents research on climate change at geophysics conference

Hannah Chapman-Dutton, a Gonzaga Prep graduate and Spokane native, presented her research Thursday in Chicago on how snowfall in the summer affects the reflectivity of the sea ice surface in the Arctic.

“The more white surfaces you have anywhere in the world, really, the more reflective the earth will be, and the less it will heat up,” Chapman-Dutton said.

Since August 2021, Chapman-Dutton has been working on her research in Fairbanks, Alaska. She is currently working toward her graduate degree in geoscience while working as a research assistant at the University of Fairbanks Alaska.

Geoscience includes all fields of natural science that relate to the Earth.

On Thursday, Chapman-Dutton displayed a poster board she made that contained her research at a convention hosted by the American Geophysical Union, or AGU for short. More than 20,000 scientists from several different fields attended this event in person, with many more joining virtually.

The main impetus for this event and Chapman-Dutton’s research is the growing concern regarding climate change. Chapman-Dutton hopes to understand historically how it has snowed in certain seasons in order to make better predictions for the future.

“I didn’t know what I was going to major in,” Chapman-Dutton said. “I just wanted to take classes that sounded interesting. And so I signed up for a program of several courses on environmental science and I thought I was gonna get to go snowshoeing, but I didn’t … I had heard about climate change. I knew that it was happening, but it never really meant much to me.

“Until I started learning about how much a changing climate will directly impact people right now all over the world, and what kinds of major changes that it could bring to the world as we know it.”

While in Alaska, Chapman-Dutton has directly seen how sea ice has affected everything from local Indigenous populations to polar bears. Chapman-Dutton even spent a month in Point Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost point of all territory in the United States, where she saw polar bears firsthand.

“The sea ice extent, or how much sea ice there is, has decreased majorly just in the last 10 years. And it’s expected that in another 20 years, there just won’t be any sea ice in the summers at all,” Chapman-Dutton said.

Most people would think being a research assistant in Fairbanks, Alaska is far different from anything she experienced in Spokane, but Chapman-Dutton said there isn’t as much of a difference between Fairbanks and her hometown of Spokane than one would think.

“Fairbanks is actually pretty similar to Spokane. It’s smaller. But the vibe is the same. The general feeling is very similar. It’s just a lot more winter and a lot colder. And in the summer, there’s a lot more mosquitoes,” Chapman-Dutton said.

She said she has found her niche in the world of geoscience, though she didn’t always want to major in the field. Chapman-Dutton once believed she would go into astrophysics, psychology or maybe even a career involving baking.

Chapman-Dutton earned her undergraduate degree in geoscience from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. While there, she took a class on Greenland that piqued her interest in the study of sea ice and snow in the arctic.

“Part of that class included a trip to Greenland for a couple days. Going out there and seeing the glacier and walking on that ice sheet was really incredible. It was really beautiful and a very kind of otherworldly environment,” Chapman-Dutton said. “And I had never seen anything like that. And I still haven’t.

“So, between that, being there, and seeing that, and also meeting the people I did, who were involved in this field, who were all just really wonderful and really inspiring people, made me want to stick with it.”

Chapman-Dutton said she was excited to show her research to other scientists at the AGU convention on Thursday and was encouraged by the feedback she received.

“The Arctic and all the ice in the Arctic and around the world is really important for mitigating climate change or for helping kind of slow it down a little. And it’s warming faster than anywhere else on earth, ” Chapman-Dutton said.

But she remains optimistic.

“Every step that each of us individually takes means that our future as a planet is that much better,” Chapman-Dutton said. “Which I think is a really hopeful outlook that I try to remember.”