Snow and ice serve to accent human activities in this photograph
taken by the Space Shuttle mission STS-98 crewmembers on February 17,
2001 (STS098-715B-84).
The Souris River stretches across the photograph from left to
right, with the upstream Rafferty Dam Reservoir
frozen over on the far left. Two power plants, the Boundary Dam
Power Station and the Shand Power Station,
can be identified by the smoke plumes and shadows of those plumes.
The river is frozen over upstream of the Boundary Dam Power Station, but
thermal loading from the plants has warmed the water in the Boundary Dam
Reservoir so that it remains nearly ice free. Downstream of the
reservoirs, thermal loading is sufficient to maintain open flow in the
Souris River.
The Estevan Coalfield is a formation of about 1500 square km that accounts for most of
Saskatchewans coal production. The coal is mined from a trench at
the surface, processed, and then used to fire the two power plants.
These plants provide almost half of Saskatchewans electricity.
Areas of active surface mining and processing appear black in the
photograph; roads used for transporting the coal are also dusted black.
Around the areas of the mines, a rough texture reveals other spoil piles
and areas where underground mining used to take place. The city of
Estevan
(population about 12,000) is the medium-gray gridded area in the upper
left of the photo.
Image provided by the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis
Laboratory, Johnson Space Center .
Information on the Estevan area and identification of features was
provided by Gregory Salmers, Estevan Public Library. Additional
photographs taken by astronauts and can be viewed via the
NASA JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.