Moose Mountain Virtual Explorer: A learning and ground-truthing tool to explore high-resolution remote sensing and geoscience data in mountainous area

The objective of the Moose Mountain Virtual Explorer system (MMVE http://www.cgq-qgc.ca/geoide/) is to provide access, through an efficient web interface, to a geologically-rich digital library to remote sensing and geoscience researchers, resource explorationists and students. Data sets are all geographically located within a rugged area of the Rocky Mountain Foothills of Alberta. The library collection was acquired through field campaigns, and airborne and satellite acquisitions, over the course of a 3-year canadian GEOIDE Network of Excellence project (Moose Mountain project, Lebel et al. 2001). High-resolution aerial orthoimages, oblique aerial and terrestrial photographs, radar imagery, geological data, maps and cross-sections constitute the database content. The project is nearing completion and aims to promote the integration of geoscientific, photogrammetric and remote sensing data as a guide for oil and gas exploration in mountain fold and thrust belts. Moose Mountain was selected because it represents a surface analogue of complexly faulted carbonate rock formations that host a gas field at depth. MMVE can thus be used to explore the complex relationships that exist between rock properties and hydrocarbon reservoir favourability within the context of small and subtle gas plays that are being explored in the deep subsurface of the Canadian Cordilleran Foothills.