Earth from Space - Image Description

STS085-707-061 Calgary, Alberta, Canada August 1997
This westerly looking view of Calgary and its environs provides a unique opportunity to look at the details of the urban region and the physical setting of this dynamic Canadian city. The large gray, rectangular region in the middle of the image is the city of Calgary. It is expanding northward, evidenced by the commuter city of Airdrie (the light area north of Calgary along Highway 2). Within the city is a darker, oval-shaped park, Nose Hill. West of Calgary, two rivers (the Bow and the Elbow Rivers) that have their headwaters in the Canadian Rocky Mountains flow generally eastward and then merge in south Calgary to become just the Bow River. The dark areas of the Rocky Mountains show forested slopes. The patchwork of lighter-colored sites in the forest between the two rivers shows sizable areas of forest clear cuts. The hilly landscape west of Calgary is used primarily as prairie ranch lands, while the extensive agricultural lands east of the city are used for growing wheat and other cereal grains.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.