Validating Safecast data by comparisons to a U. S. Department of Energy Fukushima Prefecture aerial survey

Mark Coletti; Carolynne Hultquist; William G. Kennedy; Guido Cervone

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.01.005

Validating Safecast data by comparisons to a U. S. Department of Energy Fukushima Prefecture aerial survey

Mark Coletti, Carolynne Hultquist, William G. Kennedy, Guido Cervone

Learning Systems

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17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Safecast is a volunteered geographic information (VGI) project where the lay public uses hand-held sensors to collect radiation measurements that are then made freely available under the Creative Commons CC0 license. However, Safecast data fidelity is uncertain given the sensor kits are hand assembled with various levels of technical proficiency, and the sensors may not be properly deployed. Our objective was to validate Safecast data by comparing Safecast data with authoritative data collected by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U. S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) gathered in the Fukushima Prefecture shortly after the Daiichi nuclear power plant catastrophe. We found that the two data sets were highly correlated, though the DOE/NNSA observations were generally higher than the Safecast measurements. We concluded that this high correlation alone makes Safecast a viable data source for detecting and monitoring radiation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	9-20
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
Volume	171
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.01.005
State	Published - May 1 2017

Funding

This research was funded by ONR grants N00014-13-1-0784 and N00014-14-1-0208. We would also like to thank Kalin Kozhuharov, Nick Dolezal, and Alex Mallins for their help with the Safecast cpm to mR/h unit conversions, and other participants on the Safecast mailing list for their feedback. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Naval Research	N00014-13-1-0784, N00014-14-1-0208

Keywords

Data validation
Fukushima Daiichi
Safecast
Volunteered geographic information

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10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.01.005

Cite this

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abstract = "Safecast is a volunteered geographic information (VGI) project where the lay public uses hand-held sensors to collect radiation measurements that are then made freely available under the Creative Commons CC0 license. However, Safecast data fidelity is uncertain given the sensor kits are hand assembled with various levels of technical proficiency, and the sensors may not be properly deployed. Our objective was to validate Safecast data by comparing Safecast data with authoritative data collected by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U. S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) gathered in the Fukushima Prefecture shortly after the Daiichi nuclear power plant catastrophe. We found that the two data sets were highly correlated, though the DOE/NNSA observations were generally higher than the Safecast measurements. We concluded that this high correlation alone makes Safecast a viable data source for detecting and monitoring radiation.",

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Validating Safecast data by comparisons to a U. S. Department of Energy Fukushima Prefecture aerial survey

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Keywords

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