Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia, covering approximately 10 million km². 

It ranks second in the world for its oil reserves, and third for natural gas.

Up-to-date geospatial imagery is increasingly in demand from operators working its oil fields and tar sand deposits.

A receiving station on the campus of the University of Lethbridge, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, downlinks SPOT imagery covering all of Canada.

In service since July 2004, this antenna is maintained and operated by Iunctus Geomatics, which, through its partnership with SPOT Image distributes SPOT products and services across Canada..

The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) Mosaic has been created by Iunctus Geomatics on a yearly basis since 2003.

At over 1.3 million km², this 2.5m resolution panchromatic mosaic is the largest and most current imagery dataset covering the oil & gas producing areas of western Canada.

The imagery is orthorectified and delivered in a GIS/CAD ready format, so it can be integrated with existing geospatial data easily and seamlessly.

Iunctus has also developed a web-based geo-information service for Canada’s oil & gas industry.

This service offers quick and easy access to the SPOT 5 mosaic, combining elements of a GIS with rapid delivery of up-to-date, high-resolution data. 

Iunctus also provides traditional web map service (WMS) access to the mosaic, and also offers a fully managed order desk that processes and delivers imagery for custom requests.

Companies that provide services to the upstream oil & gas industry in Canada are utilizing the Iunctus SPOT imagery products to help their planning and decision making process. 

Quick, easy access to an affordable dataset like this helps these companies make timely, and informed decisions. 

Every day these companies are using imagery from the Iunctus WCSB Mosaic to create maps and cartographic products, which are vital in Canada’s oil fields. 

Some of the projects for which imagery from the Iunctus WCSB Mosaic are used for:

-    Site access and logistics planning
-    Environmental impact assessment
-    Seismic survey planning
-    Pipeline placement
-    Infrastructure development
-    Emergency response planning (i.e. pipeline leak)
-    Mapping land use and Land development

Imagery from the SPOT5 satellite, and the Iunctus SPOT5, 2.5m WCSB Mosaic provide quick, convenient, and affordable access to GIS-ready imagery products. 

The WCSB mosaic is the most up-to-date, large coverage high-resolution dataset available in Canada, and provides a source of reliable and readily available geospatial information to a growing number of businesses that operate in Canada’s upstream oil & gas industry.