Articles | Volume 24, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3035-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-3035-2024
Research article
 | 
12 Sep 2024
Research article |  | 12 Sep 2024

On the potential of using smartphone sensors for wildfire hazard estimation through citizen science

Hofit Shachaf, Colin Price, Dorita Rostkier-Edelstein, and Cliff Mass

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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD).
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Cited articles

Anderson, H. E.: Aids to determining fuel models for estimating fire behavior, USDA Forest Service General Technical Report INT-122, 2, 3820–3824, Ogden, Utah, 1982.  
Balch, J. K., Abatzoglou, J. T., and Joseph, M. B.: Warming weakens the night-time barrier to global fire, Nature, 602, 442–448, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04325-1, 2022. 
Baumgartner, A., Klemmer, L., Raschke, E., and Waldmann, G.: Waldbrände in Bayern 1950 bis 1959, Mitteilungen aus der Staatsforstverwaltung Bayerns, 36, 57–79, 1967. 
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Brown, P. T., Hanley, H., Mahesh, A., Reed, C., Strenfel, S. J., Davis, S. J., Kochanski, A. K., and Clements, C. B.: Climate warming increases extreme daily wildfire growth risk in California, Nature, 621, 760–766, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06444-3, 2023. 
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We have used the temperature and relative humidity sensors in smartphones to estimate the vapor pressure deficit (VPD), an important atmospheric parameter closely linked to fuel moisture and wildfire risk. Our analysis for two severe wildfire case studies in Israel and Portugal shows the potential for using smartphone data to compliment the regular weather station network while also providing high spatial resolution of the VPD index.
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