Initial Results from the First Field Expedition of UAPx to Study Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena

Brief

In July 2021, UAlbany physicists partnered with UAPx for a week-long sensor deployment at Laguna Beach and Catalina Island, CA, accumulating approximately one hour of triggered visible/near-IR video, 600+ hours of untriggered far-IR video from eight FLIR ThermaCam PM695 units, and 55 hours of radiation data via a MIT Cosmic Watch muon detector. Custom motion-detection software (C-TAP), built on a pixel-subtraction algorithm adapted from dark-matter bubble-chamber analysis, flagged valid triggers in 85% of 1,716 UFODAP video files. After resolving multiple candidate events, including a night-vision spheroid identified as the ISS, the team isolated one primary unresolved event: a dark spot in the visible/near-IR feed at approximately 4am July 16, 2021, possibly coincident with anomalous ionizing-radiation counts. The authors propose 3–5σ significance thresholds as a minimum standard for future UAP field studies.

Metadata

Category

Search

Venue

preprint (arXiv physics)

Type

Preprint

Year

2023

Authors

Matthew Szydagis, Kevin H. Knuth, Benjamin W. Kugielsky, Cecilia Levy

arXiv

2312.00558

Access

Open access

Length

21.4 M

Programs

UAPx, Galileo Project, VASCO, IFEX, ECRI, Project Hessdalen, AARO

Instruments

FLIR ThermaCam PM695, UFODAP PTZ camera, AN/PVS-7x night-vision goggles, Cosmic Watch (MIT muon detector), AJA Ki-Pro-Go digital video recorder

Data sources

UAPx field expedition video (Laguna Beach / Catalina Island, July 2021), FAA ADS-B flight records, ISS orbital tracking data, UAlbany SUNY ambient radiation baseline

Tags

UAP-physics, instrumented-field-study, radiation-detection, infrared-imaging, anomaly-detection, technosignature

Key points

• The expedition logged approximately one hour of triggered visible/NIR video, 600+ hours of untriggered far-IR video, and 55 hours of radiation measurements across July 10–17, 2021 at two fixed sites plus a mobile platform near Catalina Island.p.1
• Eight FLIR ThermaCam PM695 units (7.5–13 μm spectral range, 720×360 microbolometer, 60 fps, up-scaled to 1440×720 MP4) were deployed on a Laguna Beach rooftop with slightly overlapping fields of view toward the Catalina channel.p.10
• C-TAP, the custom pixel-subtraction software, found ≥1 valid trigger in 85% of the 1,716 UFODAP AVI files when applied as a cross-check against the FLIR analysis pipeline.p.11
• The primary unresolved anomaly is a dark spot in the visible/near-IR camera at approximately 4am Pacific Time on July 16, 2021, possibly coincident with ionizing-radiation readings that has so far resisted prosaic explanation.p.1
• A night-vision spheroid initially flagged as anomalous was resolved as most likely the International Space Station, visible from Avalon for approximately 120 seconds due to altitude and weather conditions.p.10
• Across multiple sources and investigation quality levels, 4–40% of UAP cases remain unidentified after careful investigation.p.2
• Existing hard data includes reported UAP speeds above Mach 40–60 and accelerations thousands of times g, without corresponding sonic booms or fireballs.p.2
• The authors recommend 3–5σ significance rules as quantitative thresholds for future field researchers, aimed at avoiding confirmation bias toward either mundane or speculative conclusions.p.1

Verbatim

• “we focus on the primary remaining ambiguity captured at approximately 4am Pacific Time on Friday, July 16: a dark spot in the visible/near-IR camera possibly coincident with ionizing radiation that has so far resisted prosaic explanation.”

  p.1

• “anywhere between 4-40% remain unidentified after careful investigations [16, 78, 42, 88, 20], depending upon the sources and quality of the reports.”

  p.2

• “there exist hard data that demonstrate unreasonably high speeds (above Mach 40-60) and accelerations (thousands of times g ) [54, 31, 57, 30, 39, 19], without corresponding sonic booms or fireballs.”

  p.2

• “It found ≥ 1 valid triggers using its own logic in 85% of the videos.”

  p.11

Most interesting

• The eight FLIR ThermaCam PM695 cameras had been deployed near Seattle for years before this study; their age produced higher noise levels, pushing the C-TAP detection threshold toward the upper end of the 3–5σ range to control false positives.
• C-TAP's pixel-subtraction core was adapted directly from bubble-chamber image analysis techniques used in direct dark matter detection experiments.
• UAPx was co-founded by Gary Voorhis and Kevin Day, both veterans personally involved in the 2004 Nimitz carrier strike group UAP encounters that preceded public disclosure.
• The MIT Cosmic Watch deployed, a 5×5×1 cm plastic scintillator with a SiPM and Arduino Nano, was calibrated against alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron sources at UAlbany for the full year preceding the expedition, plus cross-country drives, airplane trips, and underground lab visits for newer units.
• The MSDAU sensor package (magnetometer, GPS, 3D accelerometer, ADS-B) that shipped with the UFODAP system was entirely non-functional during the first field expedition.
• Triangulation between the two fixed sites was attempted but never achieved: the island team could only be reached by phone and carried nothing beyond two pairs of night-vision goggles due to transport constraints.