Crowdsourcing Dust Storms in the United States Utilizing Social Media Data

Dust storms are natural phenomena characterized by strong winds carrying large amounts of fine particles which have significant environmental and human impacts. However, capturing the occurrence of such phenomena is a challenge. Previous studies have limitations due to available data, especially regarding short-lived, intense dust storms that are not captured by observing stations and satellite instruments. In recent years, the advent of social media platforms has provided a unique opportunity to access vast amounts of crowdsourced data. This datasets and R scripts were used to explore the utilization of Flickr and X (Twitter) data to study dust event occurrences within the United States and their correlation with National Weather Service (NWS) advisories. The work ascertains the reliability of using crowdsourced data as a supplementary source for dust storm monitoring.