The international team of physicists has developed a new methodology to help NASA and other government agencies continue to investigate unidentified aviation phenomena (UAPS). The result was a novel strategy in which physicists themselves hunted to integrate specially designed artificial intelligence programs, partly inspired by elusive dark matter.
As it is more commonly known as an unidentified flight object or UFO, UAPS is not necessarily considered unusual as it was decades ago. Putting aside various theories referring to mystical visitors from another planet, analysis increasingly focuses on determining more secular explanations. UAPs are often explained by the case of classified experimental aircraft, astronomical events, or simply false drone identity. Meanwhile, a small number of witnesses continue to confuse experts.
Over the past few years, the US government has sought to present a more transparent approach to UAP research, but the military continues its campaign to compete for reporting targets between its ranks. In November 2024, Congress held a public joint subcommittee hearing on the UAP, featuring former U.S. Navy rear admiral and NASA administrators. Though not without a substantial portion of criticism, these and similar events change the comprehensive narrative around unidentified aerial phenomena.
Researchers like Matthew Sizdagis of the University of Albany have been following this evolving discourse for years. Syzdagis, an associate professor in physics with a focus on dark matter, recently worked with over 30 colleagues around the world to determine whether this approach to hunting dark matter could be adapted to searching for UAPs. Their results published in the journal this month Advances in aerospace researchprovides a new interdisciplinary methodology to review past and future UAP sightings.
“As this process advances, it is important that future research in UAP follow rigorous and reproducible methods that can be tested and verified by other researchers,” Syzdagis said in a statement. “We aim to establish a roadmap for these efforts in this paper.”
The team relied on an array of datasets and tools to build the framework, including Doppler weather information published by the National Weather Service (NWS). The NWS data were used to support observations from additional equipment and to determine whether any of them simultaneously recorded a particular anomaly. Next, we used the Cosmic Watch, a radiation detection system, to assess whether the target UAP observed with an infrared camera was accompanied by ionizing radiation.
To aid in the analysis of infrared data, Szydagis has created a new software program called Custom Target Analysis Protocol (C-TAP), which uses machine learning along with human verification to review camera frames per pixel. Inspired by a similar strategy used to scan direct evidence of dark matter, the C-tap flags and separates actual UAP observations from digital noise. Finally, these results were covered with triangular calculations to exclude known objects in the sky, such as satellites and the International Space Station.
To test it all, Ferngis and colleagues used a new methodology to review observable light and infrared images collected at the 2021 field extract around Laguna Beach, California, during an elevated period of UAP reports. In total, the team reviewed over 600 hours of infrared data and 55 hours of background radiation measurements, as well as visible visible video footage and 55 hours of background radiation measurements. Of the multiple anomalies that were initially flagged, the researchers were able to provide a plausible and potential explanation for all but one sightings. And even so, it seems unlikely that UAP events are unique.
“At this point, it cannot be classified as a true anomaly, but further studies of the remaining ambiguity could change this conclusion,” the study author wrote in the conclusion.
The team hopes that their methodology will help more researchers around the world continue to promote UAP sightings on a scientific and impartial basis.
“Given the long-standing global nature of UAP/UFO questions, [and] “It's very important to study and understand these phenomena, as we're studying Kevin Knus, a professor of physics at the University of Albany and research author, “Their presence is air safety and security impact… it's very important to study and understand these phenomena.”
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