The first step in identifying what unidentified flying objects (UFOs) really are could be simply mapping where these enigmas are seen most, according to a new study.
Geographers with the University of Utah, working with recently retired Pentagon UFO chief Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, analyzed approximately 98,000 UFO reports in total spanning a 20-year period throughout the 21st century, from 2001 to 2020.
The researchers aggressively cross-referenced the data for local population density, light pollution levels, annual cloudiness, ‘tree canopy’ coverage, proximity to airports and military bases and a host of other factors that affect the number of UFO sightings.
What they found was statistical proof of the supposed “historical relationship” between UFOs and the American West.
Their study’s county-by-county assessment revealed hot spots or “red zones,” most often just east of the Rocky Mountains or toward the Pacific Ocean, but also some strange outliers, including Georgetown County, South Carolina and Union, Kentucky.
Geographers at the University of Utah analyzed approximately 98,000 total UFO reports spanning a 20-year period throughout the 21st century, from 2001 to 2020.
The researchers aggressively cross-referenced the data for local population density, light pollution levels, annual cloudiness, “tree canopy” coverage, proximity to airports and military bases, and a host of other factors that affect the number of UFO sightings.
“The West has a historical relationship with the UAP: Area 51 in Nevada, Roswell in New Mexico,” the study’s lead author, Richard Medina, said in a statement.
“And here in Utah we have Skinwalker Ranch in the Uinta Basin and military activity at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground,” said Medina, a noted associate professor of geography at the University of Utah.
‘In addition, there is a strong outdoor community that recreates on public lands year-round. People come out and look up at the sky.
While these explanations held true for the deep red dots covering nearly all of Nevada and New Mexico, the study’s authors were more perplexed about the equally deep red counties in Oregon and Washington states.
These rainy and “relatively cloudy” states of the Pacific Northwest, they noted, are better known for being shrouded in fog than for being prime sky-watching regions.
“There are also some isolated counties in the rest of the country that deserve further investigation,” as they wrote in the magazine. Scientific Reports“to identify which properties may generate relatively more attention about UAPs (i.e., UFOs).”
Counties in Maine, Vermont, Indiana, Arkansas and Nebraska were some of the most unexplained hotspots the team’s analysis identified.
“The West has a historical relationship with the UAP: Area 51 in Nevada, Roswell in New Mexico,” the study’s lead author, Richard Medina, said in a statement.
To break down their study of sightings by county, Median and his co-authors focused on two main criteria to compare to reports of UFO sightings.
First they compared sighting statistics, obtained from civilians. National UFO Research Centerwith a metric they called ‘sky viewing potential’, an amalgamation of data about the physical probability of detecting something interesting in the nearby skies.
To assess each county’s ‘sky viewing potential’, they gathered data on each area’s potential. light pollution, cloud cover, and tree canopy coverage, as well as the chances of strange or frequent objects in the sky from nearby airports and military bases.
“The idea is that if you have a chance to see something, then you are more likely to see unexplained phenomena in the sky,” Medina said.
“There is more technology in the sky than ever, so the question is: what do people really see?” “It is a difficult question to answer and it is important because any uncertainty can be a potential threat to national security.”
Geographers attributed the higher percentage of sightings in the West to the wide open natural spaces of the desert Southwest and dark rural skies, free from the lights of big cities or industrial smog.
They discovered that the main UFO case The hotspots showed a notable relationship with local air traffic and military installation activity, a clue that could indicate that witnesses often see genuine ground objects that they simply did not recognize.
The team hopes that this geographic analysis will help government agencies better separate truly anomalous events in the sky from routine flights and thus help uncover any legitimate security threats.