Geogratis.ca

On NRCAN’s website, you can download satellite images and digital topographic maps of Canada for free. This short guide shows you how.

• Go to http://geogratis.ca/geogratis/en/index.html

• To download maps, click on “Search by Keywords” on the left

Search for resources in this search box. For instance, you can type in ‘satellite images’ or ‘topographic maps.’

The first result is the one we want to access to download satellite images of Canada.

There are different ways you can search for maps: by geoname, postal code, NTS mapsheet or coordinates.

We are going to search by NTS Mapsheets :

• Click on NTS Mapsheet. Consult the map to determine which mapsheet number corresponds to your area of interest.

• To zoom into the area of Toronto, you’ll have to type 30 into the box.

You’ll notice that the map has zoomed into the area of Southern Ontario. By zooming into the Toronto area, using the zoom-in tool on the left, you can see that NTS sheets of Toronto start with 30M.

By zooming in further, you’ll see that the NTS sheet corresponding to downtown Toronto is 30M11.

To download images, click on “Search available datasets.”

Select the images of interest to you by checking the box. Then hit Submit.

Before you download your image, you see this metadata page, which includes important information, such as the projection of the image.

To download the zipped file of your image, click on the name of the file (next to the downward green arrow).

A zipped file with your image is downloaded to your computer.