Severe weather can cause significant loss of life and property. Floods, droughts, tropical storms and hurricanes, severe thunderstorms and tornados, extreme hot or cold temperatures, extreme snowfall, and air pollution are major weather-related disasters facing humankind. In this chapter, we review how weather satellite measurements can be used to observe and predict some of these weather-related disasters. Included is a brief discussion of the importance of satellite data for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), which is a major international initiative to improve environmental predictions. Finally, a new geostationary satellite instrument concept is presented that, when implemented on the international system of geostationary satellites, would provide a major source of the atmospheric state data for the GEOSS.

Introduction

Weather-related disasters are a primary natural cause of life and property loss. As pointed out in a study by Lott and Ross (2006), the United States alone sustained more than $500 billion in overall inflation-adjusted damages and costs due to these events during the 1980 to 2005 period. Hurricane Katrina alone caused more than $100 billion in damage and more than 1,300 deaths. Within the United States, there are usually several hundred deaths each year due to severe thunderstorms and tornados, tropical storms and hurricanes, and heavy flooding.