got geoint?

We knew it would only be a matter of time before the business world and Wall Street collided with the GEOINT world. Did you know that Wall Street analysts now use satellite images to asses how well a business is doing? Neither did we. But, according to a most interesting CNBC article, UBS analyst Neil Currie had been looking at satellite data on Wal-Mart during each month of 2010, and he’d concluded that there was enough correlation between what he was seeing in the satellite pictures of Wal-Mart’s parking lots to the big-box chain’s quarterly earnings, that he was ready to incorporate that data into UBS’ report on Wal-Mart, which releases its earnings today. The way this works is that both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe sells these types of Wal-Mart images to an analysis firm, which scrutinizes the images and sell the aggregated data to hedge funds and Wall Street analysts. Wall Street and GEOINT come together.

Tags: Big Brother, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, GEOINT and Wall Street, geospatial intelligence, Market Moving Satellite Images, satellite, Satellite Images, Wal-Mart Satellite Images