Portion of the Great Lakes area as seen from Skylab

SL4-139-3989 (February 1974) --- An oblique view of a portion of the Great Lakes area as seen from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. This picture was taken with a hand-held 70mm Hasselblad camera. Lake Erie is in the foreground; and Lake Ontario is in the background. The Niagara Falls area is in the center of the photograph. Portions of Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, Canada are visible, but under nearly complete snow cover. Major structural features, drainage patterns, road systems and the cities of Buffalo and Toronto are easily distinguished and actually enhanced by the snow. At the time this picture was taken, these two Great Lakes had no observable ice, although cloud formations partially mask the southern shores of the two bodies of water. James Barnes, a snow-pattern expert, will analyze Skylab photographs like this one to gain further knowledge of snow cover over land masses. Photo credit: NASA