3. Downtown Montreal, Canada

Montreal, the second largest city in Canada, is home to more than 3.1 million people. This snow-covered photograph of the downtown area and its surrounding region was taken in February 1994. The dense pattern of roads north of the partially ice-covered Saint Lawrence River (in the bottom of scene) attest to the extensive development in this area. The roads in the center of the scene appear dark against the background of the white snow because they have been cleared. A few major roads oriented roughly east-west pass through the central part of this scene, while numerous secondary roads extending perpendicular to these cover much of the city. Dorval International Airport can be seen just north of the Saint Lawrence River in the lower left part of this scene; it is easily identified by its long, parallel east-west runways. The darker area in the upper righthand part of this photograph is forest, and the oval feature is Mount Royal Park. The unplowed roads in this upper portion are white.

Although Canada is geographically the second-largest country in the world, the majority of its 30 million residents live in a narrow strip just north of the U.S. border. The rest of the cold, rugged landscape of this country is sparsely populated.

February 1994, image STS-60-94-70.

Location: 45°38'N, 73°45'W
Image Width: 33 kilometers

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