Interactive UFO map
They're probably the first interactive maps ever made that combine a massive number of UFO sighting reports in the U.S. and they're an eye opener.
A company named FindTheBest put together two maps that show the locations of reported UFO sightings in the United States. Company researchers analyzed data from over 61,000 UFO reports before narrowing them down to some 39,000 reports from which they created their maps.
The two maps depict UFO Sightings and UFO Sightings Per Capita.
FindTheBest is online research engine based in California that collects, structures, and connects data. FindTheBest.com allows users to research, filter, and compare more than 2,000 topics.
In the original interactive version of the UFO maps, you can move your mouse across either version and everywhere the mouse lands gives you very detailed information about that specific place in America.
You can see both maps on The Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/04/ufo-hotspot-map_n_6957032.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592.
"We downloaded UFO sightings from the National UFO Reporting Center and took all of the locations and tried to standardize them," said Lane Allison, product manager of FindTheBest.
Allison said after they got latitude and longitude pairs, they could determine the number of UFO sightings reported in counties. They then cross-referenced that with the American Community Survey population estimates of those counties, resulting in UFO reports per capita number.
She said the accuracy of the maps was limited by the number of people that bothered to report UFO sightings and by outright UFO hoaxes that were reported.
"What we learned through our research is that, in fact, most UFO sightings aren't actually reported, and between 98-99 percent of those that are reported can be explained by natural phenomena, whether by shooting stars or even a flock of birds. So we wanted to give more of a per capita (per person) number, which is why we created the per capita statistics," she said.
Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center in Washington State, said his organization has almost 108,000 UFO sighting cases in its database, and 10,000 of those weren't posted on the website because they've been determined as most likely hoaxes.
Davenport noted that most UFO sightings are easily explained.
"It's impossible for me or any other UFO investigator to separate the incoming cases into definitely UFOs or definitely not UFOs," said Davenport.
