Summary:
- In 1900, a category 4 hurricane devastated Galveston, Texas.
- By contrast, the death toll from Hurricane Katrina was about 1,800 people.
- Although Hurricane Katrina (and Harvey and Maria and others) was a modern tragedy, it would have been much worse without the advance warning of many weather satellites.
- Satellites have many different purposes for taking pictures of a planet's surface.
- Satellite images are also best seen from space to understand how long-term changes in the planet’s climate affect us.