Full Citation
Title: Not the X-Files: Mapping Public Reports of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Across America
Citation Type: Book, Whole
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: The U.S. government is responsible for an estimated 5.3 million square miles of domestic airspace and 24 million square miles of oceanic airspace. The February 2023 downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon after it had flown across the country raised questions about the degree to which the U.S. government knows who is flying what over its territorial skies. Like all countries, the United States has finite resources to monitor objects flying through its airspace. At the same time, advances in technology allow the general public, private companies, and civilian government agencies to operate ever-smaller commercially available drones that intentionally or unintentionally capture and contribute to activity in the skies. This trend could make public reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) an important source of information for U.S. government officials. This report presents a geographic analysis of 101,151 public reports of UAP sightings in 12,783 U.S. Census Bureau census designated places. The data were collected by the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), one of the nongovernmental entities that the Federal Aviation Administration has referenced in official documents for where to report unexplained phenomena. The analyses in this report should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any individual report or the overall quality of data that NUFORC has made publicly available. This report provides findings on U.S. locations where UAP reports are significantly more likely to occur and offers recommendations to increase awareness of the types of activities that might be mistaken for unexplained phenomena or that point to potential threats. The research reported here was completed in May 2023 and underwent security review with the sponsor and the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review before public release.
Url: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA2400/RRA2475-1/RAND_RRA2475-1.pdf
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Authors: Posard, Marek N; Gromis, Ashley; Lee, Mary
Publisher: RAND Corporation
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Pages: 1-62
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Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Other
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