Twenty years ago, after the events of 9/11, Maxar’s IKONOS satellite was called on to provide high resolution imagery of the areas that were struck by the attack, capturing both the still rising smoke over the remains of the Twin Towers and then, several days after, footage of Ground Zero, according to an article in Space.com. These images, and those of the Pentagon, and of the crash site for United Airlines Flight 93, represented the first unclassified satellite images of the 9/11 attack locations released to the public, according to Maxar Technologies.
Since then, satellite imagery has become an increasingly common for both preparing for and recovering from disaster, with the views captured being used to track weather events, environmental disasters, flooding, earthquakes, and so on, by both the public and private sectors.
Source:
https://www.space.com/9-11-20th-anniversary-satellite-images
