<p>Hurricane Sandy hit 24 states in Late October last year, decimating parts of New Jersey and its famous boardwalk, becoming the second-costliest hurricane in US history. Scientists have now measured the superstorm's impact by using pictures posted on photo-sharing site Flickr.</p><p>Thirty-two million photos of the weather phenomenon were posted on Flickr between October 20 and November 20 2012. Researchers, publishing a paper in the journal Scientific Reports, say they found a strong link to atmospheric pressure dropping in New Jersey by using the millions of images shared.</p><p>Tobias Preis, Associate Professor of Behavioural Science and Finance at the University of Warwick, said that the team's results show that the greatest number of photos posted on Flickr using titles such as "Hurricane Sandy" or "sandy" during the time frame of the study were taken in the first moments the storm nailed the East Coast. The team's study shows that using online indicators like Flickr could help governments measure the impact of future disasters.</p><p>"Our steadily increasing use of digital technology is opening up new and fruitful ways to document and follow human actions," said Preis in a statement. "Building on our recent work, we asked whether data from photos uploaded to Flickr could have been used to measure the impact of Hurricane Sandy."</p><p><a href="http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112995758/flickr-offers-digital-traces-hurricane-sandy-110613/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/11/06/how-flickr-uploads-perfectly-matched-hurricane-sandy">How Flickr uploads perfectly matched Hurricane Sandy</a> (imaging resource)</p><p><a href="http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2013/11/06/Collective-Digital-Traces-Could-Predict-Impact-of-Emergencies.aspx">Collective Digital Traces Could Predict Impact of Emergencies</a> (Campus Technology)</p><p><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/217f8568-46eb-11e3-bdd2-00144feabdc0.html">Sharing photos online is a vital resource</a> (Financial Times)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dbHTfLdQwPLBbWMK51swHutz9_zrM&ned=us">7 additional articles.</a></p>
