The Era of the Superstorm
They hover above our heads, out of sight, zooming in and taking pictures.
They aren’t interested in the latest celebrity wedding or covert military operation. And the images they take aren’t going to make the front page of any magazine or website.
But maybe they should.
That’s because the data collected by these powerful satellites have helped save countless lives by allowing meteorologists to warn people about dangerous storms — sometimes a week before they strike — with pinpoint accuracy.
Seven days before Superstorm Sandy hit the United States on October 29, computer models based on the data from these satellites predicted the storm would make landfall in New Jersey.
It landed just five miles from where the earliest forecasts said it would.
“It is unprecedented,” said Chad Myers, CNN’s severe weather expert and meteorologist. “(No) other storm in recent memory has been forecast that good for that long.