Exploring UFO Sightings from 2012-2022

Beginning in approximately 1970, the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) began accepting alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects from around the world. This brief analysis will offer some basic statistics of the past decade’s sightings.

:

ufo_data <- readRDS('ufo_database.RDS')

# scrape ufo sighting data 
library(tidyverse)
#install.packages("rvest")
library(rvest)
library(extrafont)
library(remotes)
#remotes::install_version("Rttf2pt1", version = "1.3.8")
#extrafont::font_import()
loadfonts()
library(ggthemes)
library(viridis)
library(tigris)
library(sf)
library(tidycensus)
library(wordcloud)
library(tm)
#install.packages("wordcloud2")
library(wordcloud2)
#install.packages("leaflet")
library(leaflet)
library(lubridate)

Do extraterrestrials prefer Americans?

It would appear our otherworldly friends have an aversion to all things un-American. Go USA, I suppose.

Where do UFOs appear in the United States?

Understandably, aliens are infatuated with Hollywood and ‘Florida Man’, but is this just a population chart? We’ll return to this later.

## When have UFO sightings been most common in the past decade?

What was happening in 2014 that so many UFOs manifested before us? That was the year Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared. Perhaps there is a connection…

Further reinforcing the patriotic mentality of aliens, July is the most popular month for sightings. Although, one wonders if this is simply a visual trick resulting from too much cheap beer and fireworks.

9:00pm is the most popular time of day for UFOs to appear. They couldn’t make it too obvious by appearing during the day, naturally.

What form do UFOs take?

According to the 24 categories NUFORC offers eye-witnesses, ‘light’ overwhelmingly wins.

How do people describe their UFO experience?

NUFORC gives users the ability to give an open-ended description of their experience.

But how does NUFORC verify the legitimacy of supposed sightings?

NUFORC is very thorough in its examination of UFO sightings. To discern the lies from the truth, the experts at NUFORC will occasionally mark certain reports as a ‘hoax’. There is no explanation of their methodology. Although from the chart below, we can see which states are the biggest culprits and in which season they like to fib.

## Contextualizing UFO Sightings in the US

Using state population data from US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, we can generate a more accurate assessments of where UFOs most commonly appear in the US. From these two maps, it is clear they prefer the Pacific Northwest and New England. Alas, where the least light pollution.

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## Coordinate Reference System:
##   User input: NAD83 
##   wkt:
## GEOGCRS["NAD83",
##     DATUM["North American Datum 1983",
##         ELLIPSOID["GRS 1980",6378137,298.257222101,
##             LENGTHUNIT["metre",1]]],
##     PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
##         ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]],
##     CS[ellipsoidal,2],
##         AXIS["latitude",north,
##             ORDER[1],
##             ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]],
##         AXIS["longitude",east,
##             ORDER[2],
##             ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]],
##     ID["EPSG",4269]]

[Alt text] (“/My Drive/Fall 2022/LPPS 6500/860153-emp.jpg”)