The West is best to spot UFOs

A new study led by University of Utah geographers Rich Medina and Simon Brewer attempts to understand if local environmental factors increase or decrease the number of UFO sighting reports. The authors used data from the National UFO Research Center, and included approximately 98,000 total sighting reports over a 20-year period, from 2001 to 2020. For each county in the contiguous U.S., the researchers analyzed two conditions: Sky view potential, which refers to the area’s light pollution, cloud cover and tree canopy cover; and the potential for objects to be present in the sky, meaning the proximity to airports and military installations.

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