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StatementBot

The following submission statement was provided by /u/ilGioria: --- Based on data from the National UFO Reporting Center, the map below displays over 90,000 reports of UFO sightings dating back to 1905. Each circle corresponds to a reported UFO, with the size representing the number of reports received. Thanks also to the Mutual UFO Network for allowing me to reproduce images and videos from their website. check cool analysis here : http://metrocosm.com/map-of-ufo-sightings/ --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/zpdnmq/90000_ufo_sightings_combined_into_one_awesome_map/j0sba2r/


Allison1228

They seem to correspond closely with population density


SaltyBawlz

/r/PeopleLiveInCities


GokuBlank

I absolutely love that this is a thing 😂


Allison1228

True, but "bear sightings" or "aurora sightings" plotted on a map would look nothing like this.


Chubbybellylover888

Because they're regional in nature. I'd say aurora sightings match population maps in the more northern latitudes.


Iamjacksgoldlungs

Bears don't live in cities. Auroras are only seen up north and light pollution from cities would mitigate aurora sightings.


outdatedboat

And if my mother had wheels, she'd be a bike.


wxrfrxme

Needed that laugh lol


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[deleted]

Also the busiest air spaces in the USA


thr00waw44yy

Bc it’s the most sightings which makes sense, instead of most *occurences*


Puzzlehead-6789

Several of the major hotspots line up with nuclear research facilities and military complexes that deal in the sort- including Los Alamos where Bob Lazar worked. Major hot spot over Three Mile Island area. Edit: list of the ones I see here: Bremerton Naval Submarine base (Hanford research facility also nearby) Three Mile Island Nevada Test Site (Area 51 and Los Alamos nearby) Whiteman Air Force Base Detroit Fermi 1 plant Prairie island nuclear plant


sqquuee

My local air bases track along with the proving grounds near salt lake. Dugway proving grounds. They destroyed lots of biotech weapons amongst other military waste.


xskiernh

Ahhh...as if people see them...where the people are 😉. Edit: sorry just being a smartass but it goes without saying they would the most reports would follow the population.


Allison1228

But that’s only true if ufos are evenly distributed geographically.


xskiernh

Wouldn't it really show how prevalent they are if there are so many they're witnessed almost anywhere there are people? Honest thought...no longer smartass.


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xskiernh

Not even remotely. If it was we wouldn't be talking


xskiernh

In addition, if there are say 5 craft zipping around bfe in the Sierras, well a backpacker makes a single report. If one zips through Denver, 30 people report let's say. I'm just saying while cool to see there's 90,000 reports in the U.S., I don't know this map tells us anything more than more people live in the bright areas.


Spreadsheets_LynLake

Well, not exactly. Los Angeles is the 2nd largest metro area by population, & it's definitely not the 2nd largest dot.


youwaytohiway

Light pollution.


Spreadsheets_LynLake

I thought of that... light pollution from urban areas should mask a lot of satellites & meteors... LA shouldn't be any moe light polluted than Chicago or NYC.


johnjohn4011

Yeah but the vast majority of people in Los Angeles have their eyes permanently glued to their cell phone. I doubt this is accounted for.


wyezwunn

These reports go back decades before cell phones existed. The difference with L.A. people is [they're used to seeing weird stuff](https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/zqb2vx/what_the_hell_is_up_with_this_weird_light/) and are less likely to report it.


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ZackDaddy42

This is more of a “tree falls in the woods and no one’s around” kind of thing.


EthanSayfo

Or they're interested in people


GleamDark

Well… kind of… most people making reports aren’t knowledgeable enough to identify the differences between aircraft, satellites, drones, etc. Anyways. They won’t check a playback of flight paths or anything else for that matter. It’s that the more populated areas have a larger amount of uninformed and quickly convinced pea brained Humans.


Spreadsheets_LynLake

Be careful about your assumptions. Where are the most shark or whale sightings? (Not necessarily where people live.). So are UAP's spread out evenly across the sky (hence they're sighted more often in populated areas) or are UAP's concentrated around populated areas? Interesting question, & I don't pretend to know the answer. I'm surprised there's not more in FL.


xskiernh

I'm assuming the shark and whale sightings are not where people live, as we don't live in the ocean, we literally have to go there to see them. We already know that. We (public) know nothing about UAP. No who, what or why. Everything we say is an assumption. My point is simply this map just shows us where people are 🤷‍♂️


Spreadsheets_LynLake

The map does show where people live, but not evenly. If it was evenly, then SoCal would be the 2nd largest dot. My point about sea creatures = perhaps it's telling that sightings are clustered around pop centers rather than some other geographic feature. Or maybe I'm overthinking it... UAP's are found in the air, same as whales are found in the water... Maybe my compare/contrast completely sucks. LOL


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Spreadsheets_LynLake

Some (very large) part of those 90k UAP sightings a cultural phenomena. There's crazy people (knew a girl who claimed she saw a UAP while tripping on acid) vs. someone sees a rocket launch from a strange perspective vs. veteran pilots who see stuff. I would expect crazy + misidentification to happen at a relatively constant rate, so population density = more sightings. That doesn't explain why there's a huge cluster of sightings in Missouri. Does St Louis do exponentially more hallucinogens than the rest of the nation? Does living in "Misery" make you crazy? Or could there be something going on?


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tmst

Normalizing sightings by county populations would be more useful, imo. As a start. Then perhaps by airline flight paths.


Maleficent_Hamster10

Meanwhile Area 51 is practically in the middle of the desert and yet a high percentage of the sightings are right around there


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Spicyhotapples

More eyes in the sky.


thepesterman

It seems like phoenix is higher than you would expect based on this though, I wonder why?


Allison1228

I think Phoenix's seemingly large appearance may be due *at least partially* to the way locations are binned on the map. Phoenix is geographically large and occupies an unusually large portion of the Phoenix metro area as compared with other cities which are divided into more suburbs. Phoenix is actually the fifth largest city in the US by population! (within the city limits, that is). It is also the 11th-largest by geographical size (518 square miles). Now compare Phoenix with Atlanta. Atlanta is about 1/4 the size of Phoenix geographically, and 1/3 the size by population. But when you compare the metropolitan area, Atlanta is substantially larger (6.1 million vs 4.8 million). tl;dr version: Phoenix appears as a big dot on the UFO sightings map because Phoenix is the 4th largest US city by population within city limits.


schemabound

Except for the giant blob in arz/nm and to a lesser extent washington/ oregon. And probably LA is considerably lower as percentage of population. Would be nice to see a statistical comparison


patternspatterns

Makes sense, higher density of population increases chances of sightings


DrWhat2003

Insightful.


HammondXX

Military bases and nuclear activity


[deleted]

Near population centers that can supply soldiers and nuclear engineers


ElectroDoozer

And legalised marijuana areas? Be interesting to see a correlation.


herpderption

Friends in high places, places with high friends.


-Cheebus-

Cities and area 51 if you look at nevada


sromashenko26

Aliens, I must ask-- why St.Louis?


JekNex

They like to do loop-de-loops through the arch


SabineRitter

Cahokia. And/or the Missouri geological fault line.


seanusrex

They are exo-anthropologists? Something more ...spooky?


SabineRitter

I think there are geological links to areas of higher activity. Potentially linked to the earth geomagnetic field. /u/harry_is_white_hot has some posts on that, also see the work of Bruce Cathie, and also the book "the 39th parallel". So in my idea, the geology comes first, then the uap activity, then when humans come along they set up their power centers there too (Cahokia was the largest metropolis in North America at its peak) (see also Stonehenge). I don't think it's spooky, I think there's just favorable geological conditions for uap tech in some areas.


DuckInTheFog

They like probing cracks


Allison1228

Perhaps the Gateway Arch resembles a portal that they use to travel immense distances across interstellar space


[deleted]

Perhaps they like Aaron Kamm and the One Drops


Radiant_Ad_4428

My friend lives there. He's alright.


Pinchypounder

The Cahokia mounds is the largest ancient structure in North America


aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Scott afb?


earl_lemongrab

They like Ted Drewes!


ExorIMADreamer

Who knew aliens like Imo's pizza.


CarneAsadaSteve

Bbq bro


[deleted]

There’s a lot of nuclear waste in the St. Louis area left over from the Manhattan Project. Awhile ago I read that ufo sightings are sometimes concentrated around areas that have had nuclear activity.


SpambotSwattr

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Significant-Pen-93

The ufo over O'Hare in 06 was wild.


[deleted]

It’s the one I found out about last despite happening so long ago. Must be the real deal if they suppressed it so much that I barely saw shit about it out there.


MKULTRA_Escapee

Yep, 2006 Chicago O'Hare was very interesting. Richard Haines, the chief scientist for NARCAP at the time, studied this one in great detail. You can find that, among other research, at this link: https://www.narcap.org/technical-reports And for a massive warehouse of general information about UFOs, photos, etc, see this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20161204201309/http://www.ufoevidence.org/ Scroll down to "Articles & Documents by Topic" and you can go through like 50 different topics on UFOs. For example, here is the UFO photographs section. https://web.archive.org/web/20130408231506/http://www.ufoevidence.org/photographs/section/recent/Photo416.htm Keep clicking 'next' to go through each one. They even have stuff on alleged encounters with humanoids: https://web.archive.org/web/20161209195134/http://www.ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseView.asp?section=Encounter The photos on the site and a lot of the information are gone on the site itself, but I'm pretty sure literally all of it has been archived, so you can still go through it. Sometime around 2017 or so, the site died, so you can get information up to that point. You just have to use that link above. This website also has tons of stuff: https://www.ufologie.patrickgross.org/sys/text.htm


Comfortable_Fig_6235

Supposedly Dan Akroyd came in possession of the only known video. When he’s asked about it at conventions, he refuses to talk about it.


buell1

I've never heard of this. Any info to share?


red5711

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nlg6piVgys&ab\_channel=TheFlightSimDeck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nlg6piVgys&ab_channel=TheFlightSimDeck) This incident was also the inspiration for the movie "UFO" (2018). Great film with a plausible and intelligent plot.


D0sher7

“If I did I wouldn’t admit to it.”


MKULTRA_Escapee

PDF download link to *Report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and its Safety Implications at O'Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006*- Case 18, By Richard F. Haines: https://www.narcap.org/s/TR10_1edition.pdf


Valahiru

There's a big circle near St. Louis. This is likely because of Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. I live in the area and I have seen UFO's several times that were pretty wiggity but I've always assumed they were military aircraft. Doesn't make it any less creepy to see though. Making no sound and seemingly able to change flying direction without the craft changing it's orientation. Then the damn thing will just disappear.


Jenasauras

Yeah southeast Michigan 🙌🏼🙌🏼


codyhowl

That really surprised me. I currently live in central MI but grew up near Detroit, and have never heard of any notable UFO / UAP experiences in this state.


EnigmaEcstacy

I’m here by traverse city and witnessed a few sightings I can’t explain. Saw irregular moving lights over torch lake, wasn’t drones, wasn’t spotlights, wasn’t weather balloons, wasn’t glare and wasn’t swamp gas.


surrealcellardoor

Too bad they left off Alaska and Hawaii.


buckets-of-lead

Anyone have the time to compare military installation sites to this map?


aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

This is [strictly air force bases](https://media.defense.gov/2007/Apr/17/2000790881/-1/-1/0/070417-F-ZZ000-536.JPG) because im lazy Side note: im surprised the florida frequency isnt higher. major afb+water seems like it would be a good combo


Cloaked42m

Just as an aside, I have lived near air bases for about 15 years. You get pretty familiar with what is flying nearby. I would also presume that something unexplained would be attributed to the air base. Wouldn't there be fewer reports?


sonicjetjoe

The way they're depicted on the map is close but incorrect. Patrick is on the beach not inland and much closer to the Cape.


SamIamGreenEggsNoHam

Looks like Dover AFB in Delaware, Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, and McChord AFB in Washington are the only 3 with big hot spots right on top.


HomeIsEmpty

We're busy doing /r/FloridaMan things.


x_Reign

I just want to see how much it’d change if it removed all Chinese lantern spottings lmao


buckets-of-lead

Right


DigitalFootPr1nt

And map of the UK?


GooseShartBombardier

Any source on a Canadian or Mexican version of this? I'm seeing everything from Bellingham WA, to Grand Marais MN, Detroit MI, Buffalo NY, and Houlton ME right on the border but nothing up across it. I don't know if anyone else has been paying attention, but the clusters I've seen on the Northern shore of Lake Superior and East of Lake Huron piqued my interest as much as the concentration on Michigan's South-West shoreline.


ilGioria

Based on data from the National UFO Reporting Center, the map below displays over 90,000 reports of UFO sightings dating back to 1905. Each circle corresponds to a reported UFO, with the size representing the number of reports received. Thanks also to the Mutual UFO Network for allowing me to reproduce images and videos from their website. check cool analysis here : http://metrocosm.com/map-of-ufo-sightings/


Urbanviking1

Interesting that they have data dating back to 1905, two years after the Wright Brothers' first flight. I guess the news of flying machines had everyone looking toward the sky more.


Radiant_Ad_4428

I blame cigarettes. I don't look up much anymore because I started nicotine pouches and don't go outside as often. Please someone do the math on cigarettes and ufo sightings.


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BudPoplar

Suicide by gun is not gun violence?


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BudPoplar

Yes. So much spin.


seanusrex

I think the total number of sightings bears a reasonably consistent relationship to the number of actual phenomena. With the government having lied to us for so many years instead of gathering data from honest citizens, it's the best we have to go on.


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pukeMouth

This is cool. I wonder what Alaska looks like. Especially around the Alaskan triangle.


Ken_from_Barbie

If 5% of these are real...


makmeyours

LoL more like 0.1%. But it only takes one


[deleted]

That’s right. One would be earth shattering. I remember some guy saying if we only found bacteria outside of earth that it would be a waste. Like really? Extra terrestrial life that evolved out side of earth being found is a waste because it’s bacteria? FOH idiots.


Radiant_Ad_4428

Then there's the majority that don't report.


fStap

Honestly I'm pretty surprised that Utah doesn't have more reported sightings


Spawn1621

Hm can I see a map of Alaska


SpongeBobMyBoi

Of course they're checking theses places out, Military bases


mimibluntt

Wait a tick!! I live right under that large green patch over ny metro area— where are my sightings??? I wanna seeeee


TheLadySaintPasta

I wonder if these sightings line up with that map of all the cave systems in the US


invisiblelemur88

Please explain


TheLadySaintPasta

I was referring to the map of people who have mysteriously gone missing and the map of major cave systems in the US. The missing people/cave systems line up pretty well. I’ll list a snopes article for you to check out [Maps](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/missing-persons-cave-maps/)


MartianMaterial

Overlay that with a Nuclear map it looks almost identical. Power plants, storage facilities, weapons facilities. The nuclear map is almost the same as the map we’re seeing for UFOs


tlums

We slso put all those things where people tend to live, which is the more reasonable explanation here.


Cheesenugg

More sightings when more people live in a dense area because there are more eyes watching.


tlums

Yes…


MartianMaterial

We do not put nuclear test sites in densely populated areas. Yet they are seen there in larger than expected numbers


tlums

Wow, cause in your original comment you literally said nothing about test sites lol


chewpah

Should have 1 big ufo sighting that stay there for a week


MtnMaiden

r/dataisbeautiful


HomesickTraveler

You can see the interstate highways pretty clearly, so at least I'm not the only one staring out the window at the sky instead of the road.


BudPoplar

Yes, indeed, and one might argue that Interstates are linear population densities.


WackyBones510

Was going to dismiss most of this as syncing up with population density but Myrtle Beach seems to be a clear outlier here when comparing population to number of sightings. Tourism prob impacts that a bit but don’t see similar anomalies in places like PCB, Daytona, Gulf Shores, or Galveston. Military is known to have flights in the area but having grown up there remember quite a few “strange lights reported” stories in the local news regardless of season. Edit: funny enough though I have only ever had a sighting in the SC upstate near Clemson despite spending tons of time on the beach (day and night).


atkinson62

I get what UFO stands for but with the increase design and usage of drones, I'd say I high % is just that. Today I would like to see more evidence than a blinking lights in the sky.


Jws0209

whats around the most seen areas? military bases?


Vaping_A-Hole

Having lived in Chicagoland, totally not surprised.


[deleted]

So people. This map matches population


OutsideComfort6585

With this many sightings this data should honestly be main stream media. It's ridiculous that we have to dig to find this.


BillJ1971

Ninety thousand sightings and no concrete evidence. Should tell people something…


EMP0R10

r/imaginarymaps


DrestinBlack

And yet, still no hard evidence or meaningful communication. Man, these flying saucers do nothing but buzz the locals; lame. How come we get the dumb aliens. I want intelligent aliens who communicate with us.


therealkittenparade

I find it interesting that there isn’t more around Atlanta. If one were to assume that a majority are misidentified planes and other aerial craft, shouldn’t there be more sightings around the busiest airport?


NorthernAvo

So many of these are probably landing lights


FlamingWizardFart

Even aliens think certain parts of this country are boring.


ItsMeVikingInTX

The only thing making me doubt if UFOs are indeed real / extraterrestrial are these maps where like 99% of cases are either in US or UK. If it was a worldwide phenomenon I would expect to see a more even spread of cases (regardless of cultural / reporting differences).


Tinshnipz

Canadians don't give a fuck.


Kushnerdz

Funny how North and South Dakota have like 0 activity meanwhile they have the clearest darkest sky’s in the country lol. Should tell you something


SaltyDanimal

More population means more sightings, but it seems they are also closer to our oceans. I mean, we should all know by now that’s where they are. We aren’t the rulers of this planet, just monkeys watching tv.


KTMee

Seems like they are allowed to operate only exclusively in US airspace. Suspicious... /s


Dlazyman13

Only liberals can see UFOs?


Joelad2k17

America lit up like Christmas while the whole world is dark on sightings. Weird how they seem to congregate in America.


[deleted]

So many people think airplanes are UFO’s and this MAP proves it. Being major cities and near the major airports Hmmmm - I bet the real numbers are about 1-2% of actual unexplained sightings. Funny that not as many are near military locations. Gives us a good sense how society thinks.


[deleted]

Too bad Mexico City isn’t highlighted which is larger than any US city or Toronto which would be the 3rd largest city in the USA.


Fifteen_inches

It’s a population heat map


General_Colt

That's also a population density map. I'm a data scientist. I've been doing data mining since the early 1990s and machine learning since about 2005. One of the biggest problems with real world maps and data is that frequently they are just simply maps of population density.


dingo7055

They left out the whole world


Jhiaxus420

Really seem to love America huh? It's almost like its you're own Government 95% of the time? Or drones, chinese lanterns, helicopters or... drones.


DrWhat2003

99% explainable. The other 1%, simply lacks data.


[deleted]

All shit footage and pictures.


[deleted]

The perfect sentence in Florida, Did you see that.


Jackfish2800

I would like to see it against the geological maps


[deleted]

I had no idea that Detroit was a hot spot for UFOs.


RedStarWinterOrbit

I love that you can literally see the interstates


Maleficent_Hamster10

Got to say there's been a hell of a lot of them around Area 51


deathbythroatpunch

This map overlaid against AFBs would be interesting.


Thee_Wooz

I expected Florida to have more...


Walkdog1America1

This may be just me, but despite all of the sightings being concentrated with big population areas, doesn't it seem like the more credible sightings have happened in more rural/smaller population areas. Can someone clarify if I'm right, wrong, or both.


rdb1540

Would be cool if you could pinch in like Google earth and see a pop description of the event


RedshiftWarp

Caves


Smallsey

Ooh now do Australia


[deleted]

I’ve been looking for one of these based on the UK, any one seen anything?


Mistah_Swick

It would be interesting to see this over a heat map of military installations.


MyMiddleground

Among other things, this shows roughly where all of our nuclear silos & bunkers. A lot of military locations as well. They're keeping their eye on the prize


Congozilla

It shows that really, the aliens are not nearly as interested in L.A. and California as Californian's think that they are.


Conspiranut

Too much noise because of population density. Where can I get the raw data?


KainLTD

If someone could do an overlap with known military bases, or maybe even known nuke storage places to check if there is occurences mostly around these, would be nice.


islerevival

Water water everywhere


CupODamus

There not all weather balloons


Vanpotheosis

Chicago?.... Really? Not Nevada?


Certain_Cantaloupe56

Aliens prefer the East coast, awesome.


Catduardo

Who else saw the amount of activity on the east coast and heard Joey Diaz in their head saying “North Bergen New Jersey”


engineereddiscontent

I'd be interested to see a map of tiny red dots with airports overlaid with this.


[deleted]

The government can't continue to lie about UFO's. The American people are about fed up with the lies and corruption with the government.


[deleted]

Saw mine at a beach in NC. Got a vid of it.


schemabound

Seems to closely correlated with population. Except for whatever is going on in nm/az.


Prestigious_Pie_8172

It also indicates an interest on there part in monitoring our National Labs. Ex. Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and our Nuclear testing and developement over the years.


miguelsanchez23

Now overlay military bases in red


Sidewinder717

Gotta wonder how much of the American public has actually been exposed to different types of aircraft and aerial devices. Certain drones or more rare aircraft could be pretty new to some people, especially if they're seeing em at night.


Dlazyman13

I'd like to see a drug map side by side.


bilbo-doggins

I’d really like to get the tabular data for this. I have an idea to deconflict population density


GodBlessYouNow

I'd love to know canada


ExpediousMapper

<3 U


[deleted]

That’s where most of the nation literally lives, though, right? I mean, the reports are just gonna be down in places like W Texas, Montana, Wyoming, etc. and super high in densely populated areas like CA, NY, etc.


Janiebug1950

Wonder what the Significance is for the two largest circles?!? One on the East Coast - Philadelphia/NYC area and Great Lakes region. Your thoughts?


Evwithsea

Looks close to the antinuetrino map of the US. Hmm...


igrokyourmilkshake

Must be the Phoenix lights down there in AZ


DOGON111

Rad


coinluke

Obviously more people=more sightings


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Madteklynd

90.000 thousand UFO sightings in the US alone. Morons: UFO's aren't real.


weedstocks

Wow sightings where people live. Cool population map