Sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), formerly known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs), have been reported throughout history. There is growing interest in understanding what these sighting reports mean, given the potential security and safety risks they pose, as well as scientific curiosity. Scientists at the University of Utah and the U.S. Department of Defense see this problem as a key question of human experience and can be examined through a geographic lens: what local factors might increase or decrease the number of reported sightings. I wondered if there was a gender. They used data from the National UFO Research Center and included a total of 98,000 sighting reports over a 20-year period from 2001 to 2020. For each county in the continental United States, they analyzed his two conditions. Light pollution, cloud cover, and canopy cover. And the possibility of an object in the sky, which means near an airport or military installation. Most of the sightings took place in the western United States due to the physical geography of the area: wide open spaces and dark skies.

“The idea is that if you have a chance to see something, you're likely to see an unexplained phenomenon in the sky,” said Dr. Richard Medina, a geographer at the University of Utah.

“There's more technology in the sky than ever before, so the question is: what are people actually seeing?”

“This is a difficult question to answer, but an important one because any uncertainty could be a potential threat to national security.”

“Understanding the environmental context of these sightings will help us find explanations for their occurrence and help identify truly anomalous objects that are legitimate threats.”

Dr. Medina and his colleagues looked at the number of sightings per 10,000 people per county and identified significant clusters of low numbers (cold spots) and high numbers of reports (hot spots).

Far more sightings have been reported in the west, northeast, and some isolated areas. Cold spots were in the Central Plains and Southeast.

All results except cloud cover support the general hypothesis that people will see things if they have the chance.

“We have historical ties to the UAP in the West, with military operations at Area 51 in Nevada, Roswell in New Mexico, and here in Utah at the Skinwalker Ranch in the Uinta Basin and the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground.” Dr. Medina said.

“Additionally, we have a strong outdoor community that recreates on public lands year-round. People get outside and look at the sky.”

NUFORC reported sightings for the spatial distribution of the continental United States from 2001 to 2020. Image courtesy of Medina other., doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-49527-x.

In July 2022, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, directed the establishment of the All Area Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) as a single authoritative UAP agency to lead and synchronize a whole-of-government approach. problem.

Previous UAP tracking efforts include the project blue booka U.S. Air Force-led project that investigated UFO sightings from 1947 to 1969.

blue bookThe most famous account is the Roswell, New Mexico incident, which claimed that a flying saucer crashed into a desert town on July 8, 1947, and the alien occupants were recovered by government agents.

Many Roswell residents witnessed this mysterious event, which may have led to a surge in flying saucer sightings that swept the United States.

Silence from government officials led to wild speculation and subsequent cover-up regarding the otherworldly visitors.

The US Air Force later revealed that the incident was caused by a secret multi-balloon project to detect Soviet nuclear tests.

Many UAP sightings have natural explanations. For example, the planet Venus is the usual culprit.

We've seen an increase in UAP reports in recent years, likely related to the rapid increase in spacecraft launches and orbiting satellites, including the Starlink satellite train and the proliferation of personal drones across the night sky. It is considered. The challenge is to parse which reports indicate the real threat.

The authors investigate whether there are temporal considerations for variation in sightings based on sociocultural factors.

For example, were there more reports after the Congressional hearings in July 2023 or after the SpaceX launch?

They are also investigating whether sociocultural factors influence UAP sightings. Whether there is a spike in reports after shows like: X files Will it become popular? Are some cultures more likely to see UAPs because of their beliefs?

“The U.S. government, military, intelligence community, and civilian agencies need to understand what is in their operational domain to ensure the safety and security of our nation and its people,” said Physicist Sean, AARO's first director.・Kirkpatrick said. University of Georgia.

“In this age of ubiquitous sensors and data availability, the unknown is unacceptable. The scientific community has a responsibility to investigate and educate.”

team's paper It was published in the magazine scientific report.

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RM Medina other. 2023. Environmental analysis of the likelihood of public UAP sightings and sky views. science officer 13, 22213; doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-49527-x