Spatial autocorrelation measures spatial and attribute similarity in one metric. If something is spatially autocorrelated, it means that objects of similar attributes tend to cluster together in space. It looks at the spatial distribution of an attribute in a dataset and asks the question, “how likely is it that this attribute is randomly distributed over space?” If the answer is “not very likely”, then that attribute can be said to be spatially autocorrelated.
This is particularly interesting when looking at UFO reports because it can show us patterns in the characteristics of the reports irrespective of external variables such as population density or military activity. A high number of reports in one spot does not necessarily mean it is a hotspot if there are many different types of shapes reported in that location.
The question being asked here is summarized as the following – are there locations in the US where there are an unusually high number of reported shapes as compared to the rest of the country?
This analysis looks at ~120,000 reports in ~27,000 unique locations. The hotspots plotted on these maps are only the most significant with p <= 0.001.
INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
Do the hotspots in the maps below show areas where there is concentrated activity of certain UFO types? Military tests? Experimental Boeing/Lockheed/Raytheon aircraft? Or dare I say it, aliens??? No. Well, maybe. All that we can say is that many people saw the same thing at the same location. This gives more credibility to these sightings and reduces the likelihood that these were hoaxes, hallucinations, or a mischaracterization.
Ultimately the point of this post is not to tell a compelling story or support one theory over another. We just want to let the data speak for itself and use this as a starting point for further characterization.
CREDITS
Our thanks go to Jacob Roush for preforming this analysis and authoring this study. You can read his original post on Reddit here.
ALL REPORTS
RESULTS
It seems landings are more rural areas. It would interesting to see landings in relation to towns and cities.
Its strange certain shapes correspond to certain areas. I feel like different shapes may point to different visitors with different missions?? There could be more interesting trends hidden in the data. Finally someone data mining the reports Thanks!
It could be different shapes cause they all come from different different planet or galaxy They might know each other or might not know But If human are most backward from all of them that’s crazy
I found this interesting also. It also brings to mind that interactions are often reported in waves. It would be interesting to see if waves are attributed to areas relative to individuals.
I would love to see an overlay of nuclear facilities along with military bases.
That would be interesting to see if sightings over nuclear facilities are still continuing. If they are, how many sites have been visited and how many visitations over the past 12 months? Are these visitors trying to be discreet or brazenly visible? Any significant increase in UAP/UFO activity over nuclear and/or military sites would certainly be cause for concern.
I recently ran a descriptive data analysis of NUFORC group of 396 observations labeled as Highlighted. I posted a preliminary draft on my LinkedIn profile. Looking at a photo, sketch or a video, it is almost impossible to see how the observer could have actually select one of the 19 shapes.
Kenneth John Anderson
I’ve noticed just from browsing the database, that anytime there’s a noticeable uptick in UFO reports here in Michigan, the MADAR node over in Detroit usually has recorded a disturbance only a few days prior.
Sure would love to know how they are powering their machines.
Could be THE answer to earths energy needs – eh?
The economic ramifications of limitless clean power and possibly at very small scale
would change everything.
Image lifetime fusion power supply the size of a suitcase given to each person at birth – plug into home or vehicle , factory whatever.
When idle /or your sleeping it could plug into and power supply a universal free grid.
Teslas atmospheric power transmission would be the final piece.