Initial Results from the First Field Expedition of UAPx to Study Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

 M. Szydagis, K. H. Knuth, B. W. Kugielsky, C. Levy, J. D. McGowan, M. D. Phel and, and G. P. Voorhis, Jr.

arXiv:2312.00558v2  [astro-ph.IM]  4 Dec 2023

abstract

In July 2021, faculty from the UAlbany Department of Physics participated in a week-long field expedition with the organization UAPx to collect data on UAPs in Avalon, California, located on Catalina Island, and nearby. This paper reviews both the hardware and software techniques which this collaboration employed, and contains a frank discussion of the successes and failures, with a section about how to apply lessons learned to future expeditions. Both observable-light and infrared cameras were deployed, as well as sensors for other (non-EM) emissions. A pixel-subtraction method was augmented with other similarly simple methods to provide initial identification of objects in the sky and/or the sea crossing the cameras' fields of view. The first results will be presented based upon approximately one hour in total of triggered visible/night-vision-mode video and over 600 hours of untriggered (far) IR video recorded, as well as 55 hours of (background) radiation measurements. Following multiple explanatory resolutions of several ambiguities that were potentially anomalous at first, we focus on the primary remaining ambiguity captured at approximately 4am Pacific Time on Friday, July 16: a dark spot in the visible/near-IR camera possibly coincident with ionizing radiation that has thus far resisted a prosaic explanation. We conclude with quantitative suggestions for serious researchers in this still-nascent field of hard-science-based UAP studies, with an ultimate goal of identifying UAPs without confirmation bias toward either mundane or speculative conclusions.

Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies

SCU peer-review articles

Publications, Research Library

  University of Würzburg, Germany 

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hakan Kayal;  Research activities;  SkyCAM-5

Publications, Media Articles: https://www.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/aerospaceinfo/staff/kayal/research-activities/uap-seti/

IFEX - Interdisciplinary Research Center for Extraterrestrial Studies 

The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis: A case for scientific openness to a concealed earthly explanation for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

• Jun 2024, Philosophy and Cosmology 33. By Tim Lomas, Brendan Case and Michael Paul Masters

Abstract

Recent years have seen increasing public attention and indeed concern regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). Hypotheses for such phenomena tend to fall into two classes: a conventional terrestrial explanation (e.g., human-made technology), or an extraterrestrial explanation (i.e., advanced civilizations from elsewhere in the cosmos). However, there is also a third minority class of hypothesis: an unconventional terrestrial explanation, outside the prevailing consensus view of the universe. This is the ultraterrestrial hypothesis, which includes as a subset the "cryptoterrestrial" hypothesis, namely the notion that UAP may reflect activities of intelligent beings concealed in stealth here on Earth (e.g., underground), and/or its near environs (e.g., the moon), and/or even "walking among us" (e.g., passing as humans). Although this idea is likely to be regarded sceptically by most scientists, such is the nature of some UAP that we argue this possibility should not be summarily dismissed, and instead deserves genuine consideration in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness. 

An environmental analysis of public UAP sightings and sky view potential

R. M. Medina, S. C. Brewer & S. M. Kirkpatrick

Abstract

Sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) have been reported throughout history. Given the potential security and safety risks they pose, as well as scientific curiosity, there is increasing interest in understanding what these sighting reports represent. We approach this problem as an important one of the human experience and that can be examined through a geographical lens: what local factors may increase or decrease the number of sighting reports? Using a Bayesian regression method, we test hypotheses based on variables representing sky view potential (light pollution, tree canopy, and cloud cover) and the potential for objects to be present in the sky (aircraft and military installations). The dependent variable includes over 98,000 publicly reported UAP sightings in the conterminous United States during the 20-year period from 2001 to 2020. The model results find credible correlations between variables that suggest people see more “phenomena” when they have more opportunity to. This analysis is one of few investigations of UAP sighting reports at a national scale providing context to help examine individual reports. Given that these objects are labeled unidentifiable in the personal sense, there are many natural and/or human based explanations worth exploring.

Initial Results From the First Field Expedition of UAPx to Study Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena       Astrophysics > Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

M. Szydagis, K.H. Knuth, B.W. Kugielsky, C. Levy, J.D. McGowan, M.D. Phelan, G.P. Voorhis Jr

    Abstract 

In July 2021, faculty from the UAlbany Department of Physics participated in a week-long field expedition with the organization UAPx to collect data on UAPs in Avalon, California, located on Catalina Island, and nearby. This paper reviews both the hardware and software techniques which this collaboration employed, and contains a frank discussion of the successes and failures, with a section about how to apply lessons learned to future expeditions. Both observable-light and infrared cameras were deployed, as well as sensors for other (non-EM) emissions. A pixel-subtraction method was augmented with other similarly simple methods to provide initial identification of objects in the sky and/or the sea crossing the cameras' fields of view. The first results will be presented based upon approximately one hour in total of triggered visible/night-vision-mode video and over 600 hours of untriggered (far) IR video recorded, as well as 55 hours of (background) radiation measurements. Following multiple explanatory resolutions of several ambiguities that were potentially anomalous at first, we focus on the primary remaining ambiguity captured at approximately 4am Pacific Time on Friday, July 16: a dark spot in the visible/near-IR camera possibly coincident with ionizing radiation that has thus far resisted a prosaic explanation. We conclude with quantitative suggestions for serious researchers in this still-nascent field of hard-science-based UAP studies, with an ultimate goal of identifying UAPs without confirmation bias toward either mundane or speculative conclusions.

Hypersonic Unidentified Aerial Objects

Geoffrey W. Marcy & Beatriz Villarroel -Submitted 8 March 2023 

Abstract 

Recent reports describe observations of unidentified objects of ~10-meter size moving at hypersonic speeds of ~10 km s-1 (Zhilyaev et al. 2022ab). Concern has been raised by Loeb (2022) that such speeds, if true, would have caused a bright optical fireball as are created by incoming meteors. But neither a fireball nor a “meteor trail” was observed, raising doubt about the existence of the claimed hypersonic objects. Here we describe an addendum to Loeb’s paper regarding aircraft engineered with a nanoscale frontal cross-sectional area that drastically reduces the air “plow-through” and energy deposition, thereby minimizing any “meteor trail” as is achieved by stealth drone aircraft. Similarly, spacecraft for interstellar travel benefit from nanoscale frontal cross-sections to minimize the number of impacts by interstellar atoms and dust.

Unidentified aerial phenomena. UAPs over Kyiv 

B.E. Zhilyaev, V. N. Petukhov. DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.20467.60966 

Abstract 

NASA commissioned a research team to study Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), observations of events that cannot scientifically be identified as known natural phenomena. The Main Astronomical Observatory of NAS of Ukraine conducts an independent study of UAP also. For UAP observations, we used a meteor station installed in Kyiv. We have identified three groups of objects (1) a group of bright spinning objects, (2) a group of bright structured objects and (3) a group of dark flying objects. Monitoring of the daytime sky led to the detection of bright and dark objects, moving at a speed from about 1M to 16Mand sizes from about 20 to 100 meters. The detection of these objects is an experimental fact. Estimates of their characteristics follow from observational data. The authors do not interpret these objects

“Down to Earth” Limits on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena 

Abraham Loeb. arXiv:submit/4526621 [Astro-ph.IM] 5 Oct 2022

Abstract 

A recent report by astronomers about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in Ukraine (arXiv:2208.11215) suggests dark phantom objects of size 3–12 meters, moving at speeds of up to 15 km s−1 at a distance of up to 10–12 km with no optical emission. I show that the friction of such objects with the surrounding air would have generated a bright optical fireball. Reducing their inferred distance by a factor of ten is fully consistent with the size and speed of artillery shells. 

Unidentified aerial phenomena II. Evaluation of UAP properties

B.E. Zhilyaev, V.N. Petukhov and V.M. Reshetnyk. 2022. arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.17085 

Abstract

NASA commissioned a research team to study Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), observations of events that cannot scientifically be identified as known natural phenomena. The Main Astronomical Observatory of NAS of Ukraine conducts an independent study of UAP also. For UAP observations, we used two meteor stations installed in Kyiv and in the Vinarivka village in the south of the Kyiv region. Two-side monitoring of the daytime sky led to the detection of two luminous objects at an altitude of 620 and 1130 km, moving at a speed of 256 and 78 km/s. Colorimetric analysis showed that the objects are dark: B - V = 1.35, V - R = 0.23. The size of objects is estimated to be more than 100 meters. The detection of these objects is an experimental fact. Estimates of their characteristics follow from observational data. The authors do not interpret these objects. Daytime sky monitoring in Kyiv with multi-color DSLR camera at a rate of 30 frames per second in August and September 2018 and in Vinarivka with a multi-color CMOS camera in October 2022 revealed several cases of dark objects (phantoms). The time of their existence is, as a rule, a fraction of a second. These are oval-shaped objects ranging in size from 20 to 100 meters with speeds from 2 to 30 km/s.

Improved Instrumental Techniques, Including Isotopic Analysis, Applicable to the Characterization of Unusual Materials with Potential Relevance to Aerospace Forensics

Nolan, G.P., Vallee, J.F., Jiang, S. and Lemke, L.G., 2022. Improved instrumental techniques, including isotopic analysis, applicable to the characterization of unusual materials with potential relevance to aerospace forensics. Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 128, p.100788. 

Abstract

The problem of precise characterization, analysis, and eventual identification of unknown materials arises in many fields and takes many forms, depending on the nature of the substances under study. In the first part of this paper we review common, modern mass spectrometry techniques applied to such studies. We also give an overview of improvements made to these technologies in recent years by Silicon Valley companies and other teams focused on precise biomedical research dependent upon sensitive techniques, yet applicable to a wide range of non-biological materials. In the second and third parts of the paper we review practical experiences applying these techniques to the simplest case of the characterization of solid materials (as opposed to liquids or gases) and comparing our results with previously undertaken isotopic analysis. In particular, we describe our correlations of that analysis with the patterns described by witnesses in a well-documented, still-unexplained incident, initially thought to be of aerospace origin, which gave rise to the deposition of unknown material, and by the investigators who handled it in the field and the laboratory. The lessons from this specific investigation are applicable to a wider range of issues in reverse engineering of complex, esoteric materials, and aerospace forensics.

Advanced Space Propulsion Based on Vacuum (Spacetime Metric) Engineering

Harold E. Puthoff, 2012. https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.2184

Abstract

A theme that has come to the fore in advanced planning for long-range space exploration is the concept that empty space itself (the quantum vacuum, or spacetime metric) might be engineered so as to provide energy/thrust for future space vehicles. Although far-reaching, such a proposal is solidly grounded in modern physical theory, and therefore the possibility that matter/vacuum interactions might be engineered for space-flight applications is not a priori ruled out. As examples, the current development of theoretical physics addresses such topics as warp drives, traversable wormholes and time machines that provide for such vacuum engineering possibilities. We provide here from a broad perspective the physics and correlates/consequences of the engineering of the spacetime metric.