If you Google "hedge fund satellite data", you'll get loads of results, e.g:
> Every five minutes a satellite captures images of China’s biggest cities from space. Thousands of miles away in California, a computer looks at the shadows of the buildings in the images and draws a conclusion: China’s real estate boom is slowing.
> Traders at BlackRock, the money management giant, then use the data to help choose whether to buy or sell the stocks of Chinese developers.
China is hard, though, because it's cloudy very often. Having a fleet of satellites in orbit with a ~15 minute revisit rate will be game changing to making sure you find exactly what you're looking for on the day you're looking for it.
> Every five minutes a satellite captures images of China’s biggest cities from space. Thousands of miles away in California, a computer looks at the shadows of the buildings in the images and draws a conclusion: China’s real estate boom is slowing.
> Traders at BlackRock, the money management giant, then use the data to help choose whether to buy or sell the stocks of Chinese developers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/business/dealbook/the-nex...