Distribution (by Shape) of reported UFO sightings on NUFORC from Nov. 2003-Nov. 2004

Hi folks,

Consider the following a "gift" to the UFO community here at ATS.

To the staff at ATS: to my knowledge, this map is a one-of-a-kind, as it was produced by your's truly.

The following map was made using publicly availble data from NUFORC, which IMHO has become the sole leading repository of reported sighting data collected, at least in North America.

Referencing their database of reported sightings between Nov. 1, 2003 ad Nov. 7, 2004 (when the data was analyzed), I constructed a map which plots the location of qualified* sightingsn and their geographic distribution by shape.

I adapted the following methodology for this study:

Indentification of the "UFO Pattern": Focus on Highly Repeating Shapes

Borrowing from Paul Hill's methodology, I only plotted the distribution of what Mr. Hill originally referred to as "highly repeating shapes," the objects which appear in reported sightings with alarming regularity, as the frequently repeating occurence of these objects as reported by independent witnesses in itself lends more credibility to the reports.

Furthermore, when someone sees an object clearly enough to describe it's shape, this in general speaks for a higher quality sighting (while I will agree this has no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the witness).

The study was thus limited to the following shapes (listed in decsending order of occurence): Triangles (red), Discs (magenta), Spheres (light blue), Ovals & Eggs (off-white), Cigars & Cylinders (yellow), Diamonds (dark blue), Chevrons (bright green), Rectangles (orange), and Crosses (purple).

If you subtract reports categorized as "Lights," "Unknown," "Formation," or "Flash," the above categories together account for 60% of the sum total of sightings in the NUFORC database of nearly 30,000 reports -- a valid statsitical sampling of the entire population, BTW.

However, only the reports between Nov. 1, 2003 and Nov. 7, 2004 were included in this plot.

Lastly, while I did in fact use some of Mr. Hill's established categories verbatim, I also felt it improtant to include certain shapes which were not as common a quarter-century ago as they are today. One other deviation from his identified categories was the inclusion of all disc-shaped objects into one category (as this is how they are categorized in the NUFORC database).

I have already drawn some rather interesting conclusions -- some resulting from further research conducted following a study of this very map. I am curious to hear what conclusions may be drawn by some of you?



I also have created similar maps which contain only the plots of specific shapes, e.g., a map with only Cigars & Cylinders, etc., which I may post at a later date on the website I have created should I choose to launch it.

Look forward to your collective thoughts.

[Edit: because apparently the diamonds are represented by dark blue, not dark purple. Guess I got it confused with a bowl of Lucky Charms or sumpin ]

[edit on 5-2-2005 by sdrumrunner]

Why isn't their one of the entire world? Since UFOS are a matter of not national security but global.

Originally posted by Grey Fox
Why isn't their one of the entire world? Since UFOS are a matter of not national security but global.

Well, because I made the map, I live in the U.S., and frankly, I didn't have the time, patience, resources, nor desire to make one for the entire world.

Furthermore, outside of the U.S., the greatest number of reported sightings on NUFROC are from either Canada or the U.K., and beyond these three countries (and maybe Australia), there are not enough reported sightings in their database from elsewhere to justify the extensive effort to create such a map.

Sheeesh... give an inch, ask for a mile!

[edit: due to yep, you guessed it... more typos. ]

[edit on 5-2-2005 by sdrumrunner]

The triangle sighting north of Vegas corresponds to Area 51, so we can safely assume it was some govornment toy.

The other regions, however, are not so easy to explain.

a job well done sdrumrunner and very interesting to see.

thanks,
drfunk

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
The triangle sighting north of Vegas corresponds to Area 51...

Good obvservation.

One of the (many) surprising findings for me personally was the relative absence of activity near Area 51...

Don't people still lurk around there hoping to see something? Or did the govt. finally secure enough land to adequately hide activity? I've never been there myself, but have seen/read my share of material on the subject...

Originally posted by drfunk
a job well done sdrumrunner and very interesting to see.

thanks,
drfunk

Thanks, Doc... I appreciate it.

Interestingly, the geographic distribution doesn't correlate as strongly as I thought it would with population density maps... I'm not saying there is no correlation (as evidenced by the relatively large number of reported sightings along the West Coast and Eastern Seaboard), but rather that it does not appear to be as strong as I thought it would be...

Wow, sdrumrunner, that's some work you did...I'm sure it took you quite a while! I have no conclusions to make from that, just wanted to say that's an awesome map One teeny comment though; maybe you could put the color key at the bottom of the map? It would be easier to link up the color/shape that way.

Great job!

Its very good.I wouldnt of thought of that.This can be accessed on the internet instead of just this forum right?

You should also try to develop maps of
U.K,India,Brazil,France,Japan,South africa,Mexico and Australia.

These nations are all hotspots for UFO`s.The more nations you do,the more of a worldwide audience you will get.

Originally posted by sdrumrunner


Good obvservation.

One of the (many) surprising findings for me personally was the relative absence of activity near Area 51...

Don't people still lurk around there hoping to see something? Or did the govt. finally secure enough land to adequately hide activity? I've never been there myself, but have seen/read my share of material on the subject...

Ahhhhhhh, you noticed that as well? It kinda kills the whole "UFOs are govornment secret weapons" argument. If they were, the State of Nevada, between Area 51 and Tonopah Test range, that whole spot would be lit up like a Christmas tree.

Even if that area itself is pretty unpopulated, the amount of visitors and watch hounds who show up there hoping to see something would certainly have reported far more instances of UFOs, which simply hasnt happened.

My opinion on this is that most people can identify a terrestrial craft, even an exotic top secret one. What people would tend to report, however, is something that totally boggles the mind as to how the hell it moves, what is it, ect.

And on a side note, NUFORC Mainly collects data on sightings in the US, thus, sdrumrunner would not have been able to make a decent map of international sightings from NUFORC data. Although NUFORC does take reports from abroad, most countries have their own UFO watch groups where locals report sightings.

What has often been proposed and is a great idea: an international reporting center/database that would collect all reports and put them together for better views.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

Originally posted by sdrumrunner


Good obvservation.

One of the (many) surprising findings for me personally was the relative absence of activity near Area 51...

Don't people still lurk around there hoping to see something? Or did the govt. finally secure enough land to adequately hide activity? I've never been there myself, but have seen/read my share of material on the subject...

Ahhhhhhh, you noticed that as well? It kinda kills the whole "UFOs are govornment secret weapons" argument. If they were, the State of Nevada, between Area 51 and Tonopah Test range, that whole spot would be lit up like a Christmas tree.

Even if that area itself is pretty unpopulated, the amount of visitors and watch hounds who show up there hoping to see something would certainly have reported far more instances of UFOs, which simply hasnt happened.

Yep... I think the same thing could be said about a couple other reported "hot spots" as well.

Now... by contrast, your neck of the woods is lit up like a Christmas tree! In fact, the greater Sea-Tac area was one of those where the number of sightings (as a ratio of the population) appears to exceed the leveraged average* of other population centers (as do Denver, Albuquerque, NE Tennessee, and Minneapolis, among other places).

*Note: "leveraged average" is in this case is nothing more than an informed-but-not-quantified estimate (read: edcuated WAG) as I am yet to work out the actual norm mathematically (this would require more time than I am willing to allocate at this time).

Originally posted by blackSt33L
Its very good.I wouldnt of thought of that.This can be accessed on the internet instead of just this forum right?

You should also try to develop maps of
U.K,India,Brazil,France,Japan,South africa,Mexico and Australia.

These nations are all hotspots for UFO`s.The more nations you do,the more of a worldwide audience you will get.

Actually, the only place it exists other than on ATS is on ImageShack, where I hosted it (props to ImageShack for providing this free service -- something I learned on this site, BTW... )

Regarding the creation of maps of other countries, yes, I too agree this would be a wonderful asset. As mentioned by Skadi, the number of international reported sightings in the NUFORC database outside the U.S, Canada, the U.K., and maybe Australia are (at this time) too few in number to be of any significant value in this regard...

Maybe this will change in time? Please, everyone, strongly encourage those you know who have witnessed something to report their sighting to NUFORC in addition to their own or other web sites...

Only if we consolidate our collective reports in one comprehensive repository of data can we get a clear picture of the actual frequency at which this is occurring on a global scale!

In the meantime, I would strongly encourage someone to replicate this effort for other countries, whether it be in Canada (using NUFORC data) or elsewhere local sighting repositories...

[Edit: to fix a fugdup link ]

[edit on 5-2-2005 by sdrumrunner]

True. A copuple things to note about my region tho.......

1. NUFORC HQ is here in Seattle, so that might explain why it has more reports from here.

2. This is the area where modern Ufology began with Kenneth Arnolds saucers.

3. As far as witness reliability........this is also Boeings Home. Around 100,000 people in this area work for Boeing. We have several airfields. People here are very familiar at least, with aircraft, and thus, are less likely to mis-identify things that fly, since we see crap flying around all the time and no one bothers to notice.

But there are a good number of sightings. Given that the skies are clouded over most of the friggin time, and that the whole metropolitan area is only 1.8 million people........yeah. It is strange.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
True. A copuple things to note about my region tho.......

1. NUFORC HQ is here in Seattle, so that might explain why it has more reports from here.

2. This is the area where modern Ufology began with Kenneth Arnolds saucers.

3. As far as witness reliability........this is also Boeings Home. Around 100,000 people in this area work for Boeing. We have several airfields. People here are very familiar at least, with aircraft, and thus, are less likely to mis-identify things that fly, since we see crap flying around all the time and no one bothers to notice.

But there are a good number of sightings. Given that the skies are clouded over most of the friggin time, and that the whole metropolitan area is only 1.8 million people........yeah. It is strange.

Thx, Skadi, all very good and very valid points.

IMO, one of the more faciniating aspects of the sightings reported in and around the general area were the mutiple instances (okay, what... two? maybe three?, but still... ) of people having reported seeing objects flying into or out of the water...

Multiple sightings are common here, yes, for alot of reasons. When we actually do get clear skies, everyone is out at night looking at them because they are beautiful. Thus, you have more of a chance of multiple people seeing something. There are also alot of educated people here, which helps.

Another thing worth noting is that Montana and the Dakotas also have secret military installations which fly top secret craft. Yet UFO sightings are very sparse there. One might Assume it is because there are very few people in those states. But when one looks at Texas, a state with alot of people, we see alot Fewer sightings dots than what would be expected. Ohio also has alot of people, and the dots there do not correspond with the number of possible witnesses.

So again, military test craft do not explain sightings as easily as some people might believe.

How about everyone does a graph of their own state. Im doing mine now

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Another thing worth noting is that Montana and the Dakotas also have secret military installations which fly top secret craft. Yet UFO sightings are very sparse there. One might Assume it is because there are very few people in those states. But when one looks at Texas, a state with alot of people, we see alot Fewer sightings dots than what would be expected. Ohio also has alot of people, and the dots there do not correspond with the number of possible witnesses.

So again, military test craft do not explain sightings as easily as some people might believe.

Yep -- I noticed that as well. In particular, I was somehwat surprised that there exists such a large corridor where aboslutely nothing was reported (at least as per the parameters/qualifiers identified above).

This appears anomolous considering the slight variance with which reported sightings seem to occur in other (equally) sparsely populated areas...

sdrumrunner,

see that line of dots across florida thats were i got picked up, right in center, city named kissime , you know it as disneyworld area.

great map

[edit on 5-2-2005 by lizzardsamok]

Originally posted by Vegemite
How about everyone does a graph of their own state. Im doing mine now

Right on...

After all, the data is publicly availble for all of us, and IMHO, completely underutilized...

Thanks for the hard work sdrumrunner I'm sure everyone here appreciates it.

I also noticed the lack of reporting in the center of the country aside from Colorado.
It would be interesting to see if there was an increase in sightings after the 'NWO' Denver Airport went up in the nineties.