Why I Am Launching A New Transparent UAP Research Database
Written by William Faria from the ADX Project - 27 December 2021
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
New Project Will Focus On Providing Full Public Access To UAP Data, Allowing Scientists To Quantify The Quality Of Data.
During the last year, we saw great progress made on the legislative front in the passage of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Office included in the NDAA for 2022, which has now been signed by President Biden. It seems that members of Congress are finally taking the phenomenon seriously.
In the coming year, it will be equally important to engage the wider scientific community.
Key questions remain, which include.
How can the scientific community be engaged?
Will the data held by the government ever be released?
How can we encourage private interests and researchers to conduct empirical research into the topic?
But something we need now, to fast-track that engagement is this: well-organized data that demonstrates there is a real phenomenon worth investigating.
In almost every scientific discussion of the UAP topic, there is wide agreement that more data is needed. The generic answer from scientists is to lament that no hard ‘data’ exists. That answer is thrown around quite often, despite the fact that there already exists large volumes of data available in the public space.
The reported observation data that exists in the public space is largely anecdotal and although it is convincing and intriguing when taken together, it lacks the controlled conditions that are often required for scientific analysis. However, this is not to say that existing historical UAP datasets are useless, far from it.
If properly vetted and organized, historical UAP data can be used to demonstrate the near-certain statistical probability of the existence of a phenomenon worthy of further rigorous scientific investigation.
Problems with public UAP data as it exists today include:
The information exists in a completely ‘unstructured’ format
It is difficult to judge the quality of each individual observation
UAP observations can take many different forms.
There is also the problem of data that is slipping through our fingers every day. The combination of a lack of official civilian data collection systems combined with the stigma around reporting observations means that much data simply is never recorded and is lost forever.
I established the Anomalous Data Exchange or ‘ADX’ for short, as a way to address the issues identified further above.
Our goal is to provide a framework to reformat the historical data, while providing data standards for future reporting systems that might be developed, such as apps, data collection websites, airline standard operating procedures (SOPs), etc.
In this way, we can create a single unified dataset that spans the complete modern history of the UAP subject from Project Sign to the Galileo Project and beyond. We need to build a pipeline where raw data goes in one end, and standardized observation data comes out the other - ready for analysis by the scientific community.
Overcoming The Challenges Of Studying UAP Scientifically
Let’s take a look at the first problem identified earlier: unstructured data.
We have at our fingertips thousands of incidents reported and vetted by the United States Air Force during historic UAP projects, including Grudge, Sign, and Blue Book.
In other countries, such as France, there exist many more reports collected by police and investigated by a division of their space agency called GEIPAN.
Currently, we have amateur satellite trackers and astronomers who have observed many unidentified objects in orbit - none of which are collected in a central location.
In many nations pilots, air traffic controllers, radar operators, and others witness unexplained phenomena regularly without any organized reporting system in their SOPs.
While all of this data exists, it cannot be pooled together to support analysis and identify possible patterns.
Above: Tom’s River NJ, 1945 Above: St.Zacharie, France 2015
Additionally, current data exists in different formats making it almost impossible to effectively search or compare.
Some data is recorded on microfilm in the national archives, others in PDFs, data may even be saved in excel files, or stored within a personal collection.
There may also be very different types of observations described, from single observers to the involvement of multiple sensors. Then we have observations of various shapes, sizes, and numbers of anomalous objects. How can we possibly put all of this data together in a coherent manner?
We Need A Standardised Database
The answer is a standardized relational database system.
That’s a fancy way of saying we need to have the equivalent of multiple spreadsheets linked together by a common ‘primary key’. The basic unit in our relational database or its primary key is the ‘observation’. Multiple observations can also be grouped together into ‘events’.
Each observation can be linked to different tables that contain information about weather, the observer, sensors, files, objects, time/position data, etc.
By using this type of flexible database structure we are free for any single observation to have multiple observers, many different objects, and be grouped together into events. We can also measure the strength of the observation quantitatively by evaluating the credibility of the observer and the accuracy of the sensor.
Above: An image of DB Schema showing data points to be collected related to an anomalous observation.
An easy way to think of this database format/structure is as a blueprint for a house. When building a house, separate experts (such as carpenters and plumbers) work on different aspects of its construction - and they all refer back to the blueprint to know what they need to do.
It works the same way with different research teams referring back to a standardized database structure.
The ADX Database Standards (ADX-DS) is a free, open-source tool. Any developer or group of researchers can download this database blueprint and use it for their project. In this way, the data collected by all projects can be very quickly pooled together and compared.
Researchers and developers can also save time by avoiding any need to re-invent a database structure for reporting observation data each time. Instead, they can focus on developing their techniques, apps, software, algorithms, etc.
Once the data from either historical datasets or new observations are converted into the ADX-DS format it will be stored in the ADX Data Warehouse. The Data Warehouse is a live example of a relational database that can store data from many different sources into one single format.
The ADX Data Warehouse will be free and open-source as well, and that will encourage the public and the wider scientific community to drill down into the known UAP data.
For example, you could query the database for all ‘green orbs’ seen by ‘military pilots’ across all datasets in the warehouse.
Above: Screenshot of alpha testing of the data warehouse, filter applied to military flights.
Let’s Build A World-Class UAP Database - We Need Your Help!
Using the house analogy from earlier, each observation entered into the data warehouse will serve as a brick in the foundation of our scientific knowledge of the phenomenon.
The database structure specifies what size and shape each brick should have, then allows each brick to be stacked one upon another by different researchers until we have built a solid foundation of data that will support the next step: analysis and categorization.
To build this foundation for understanding the phenomenon we need your help!
We need detail-oriented researchers to analyze historical cases and enter their characteristics into the data warehouse.
We need great communicators to help perform outreach to scientists and organizations that might hold anomalous data that until now is being left unreported.
We need analysts with skills in forensic video analysis, meteorology, and aeronautical engineering that can help interpret observations and judge their validity once entered into the data warehouse.
To be successful, we must also contact private organizations holding unclassified anomalous data and request them to open their archives and work together with the greater scientific community to create the most complete picture possible of the phenomenon.
We also want to work collaboratively with other projects, including the Galileo Project and UAPX.
By working together, we can provide scientists with a hugely extensive database they can work effectively with.
As the UAP topic gains mainstream acceptance more and more quality observations will stream in. It is critically important early on to establish a common civilian scientific framework for reporting and storing UAP data to create a more clear picture of what we are observing.
Understanding the phenomenon will take many thousands of hours of work, but together we can make significant progress with the data already in the public sphere. In 2022 I hope the UFO/UAP community will come together to build understanding around this topic.
Want to join this ambitious mission and help the scientific community accomplish real progress? Please visit adxproject.org or email adxdata@protonmail.com to get involved and start laying the foundation for understanding the phenomenon. You can also follow the project on Twitter at @adxproject.
About The Author: William Faria holds a degree in Behavioral Biology from the Johns Hopkins University. He has 20 years of experience designing and implementing data collection systems and processes for scientific research.