When I first heard about someone using Google Maps, and later Google Earth, to show UFO sighting locations it seemed a bit silly. But, after viewing the Google Earth file 
, which breaks up the sightings according to the year it was taken, the application took on a different perspective. Note, this data is only for the United States (where most UFOs appear of course).
After loading into GE, look at the Places window and view the contents of the “UFO Sightings” folder. You can turn on the placemarks for each year in the database from 1860 through 2005. What I find interesting is the density of reportings over the years. There’s a huge increase in reports starting in 1995. It could be that once the Internet took off in 1995, it enabled more people to communicate their speculations. But, I wonder whether this says something about the sanity of our society over time?
At one point…
Years ago I worked at a planetarium, and we dedicated a show to explaining many common phenomena which are interpreted as UFOs (they were unidentified to the viewer of course). For example: weather balloons, helicopters, meteorites, satellites, etc. After a show people would come up and talk to us about their own UFO experiences. Apparently sharing this information results in even more reports. I wonder whether other countries around the world come even close to the number of reports in the United States?
The data in these maps is based on a database from the National UFO Reporting Center. The UFO Google maps mashup and Google Earth file were created by a company in Canada called Poly9. These maps were very well done technically by the way. Good job Poly9!
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
“I wonder whether this says something about the sanity of our society over time?”
Actually, many sane people have seen UFO, and not just blurry nocturnal objects brought on by perceptual fatigue. I have read hundreds of credible comm/military pilot sightings which to me suggest that sanity and UFO sightings can coincide. I never doubted my sanity when a large, apparently metallic object flew overhead at low altitude in broad daylight. Btw, this object had very distinctive heat marks along the leading edge of an otherwise clean, metallic surface–such as you could expect for an object that re-entered from high orbit. However, this object was flying at a flat trajectory at low altitude. I won’t begin to speculate what this object was, but I no longer doubt these things do happen. It should be an opportunity for science to apply some real rigor to this phenomena, versus attribute all cases to inversion layers, swamp gas, weather balloons, etc.
the best place I know for sighting UFO”s is in Sholow,Az. In 1996 my son and I were just east of Sholow,az, we were at 7000 ft, the sky was clear. We saw what we thought to be satalites cirleing the earth above us,in two rows, one going north and one going south, suddenly two bright objects appeared, one from the east and one from the west, we thought they would cross the line of bright objects, however,once they entered the line, they made 90degree turns, one went north and the other went south,joining the many other bright objects.
I wonder why Az is such a hot spot for sightings? Any ideas?
These folks used google maps to show sightings in my area:
http://www.strangeusa.com/viewcity.asp?city=Blowing%20Rock&state=NC
I think it is very cool.
Is there life outside our own beautifull blue globe ?
Well, it would be pretty arrogant to think we are the only ones.
I find it quite amusing that if you look for UFO sightings on the internet, that 99% of those happen in the states.
It can mean a few things…
a) Any intelligent life that is capable of visiting our earth, just loves the USA.
or
b) Americans are superstitious ?
I vote on the latter one.
I just saw a bright light in the sky, looks brighter than a star. It appeared to be really close and once my husband and I pulled out our cameras to capture the image, both our cameras stopped working and said we needed new batteries. The light then began to grow brighter and then dim, only to disappear and then reappear again. Could this be a ufo? It remained still in the same area and didnt move at all, only when it would fade and come into view again.
I found a for sure ufo, same as the triangle shaped one in Australia, its in the northern part of Germany. 53 deg.08’33.50″N 13deg01’46.48″E
If you can check it out and please get back to me. And theres thousands of string like entities all over. Above land and water, small and big ones, some with heads. It’s trippy shit. Their everywhere.
I am in shock at what I saw last night. Ok, I was laying on the golf course with 2 friends and one of them turned to me and said what is that? I looked up and there were 2 flashing white lights moving parallel to eachother. I know for a fact that it was not an airplane because there was no noise and I could not see the object between the lights (if there was one). They were moving about 2 times the speed of an average airplane would move in the sky…They seemed about cloud height. I am still in shock of what happened and i cannot get it out of my mind. Can some one give me some clarification on what exactly this could have been. My email address is todd22192@aol.com
I think there is a good reason for why so many U.S. citizens report UFO’s –
1. we have freedom to do so, and don’t always get censored..
2. we are technologically advanced to many other countries.
3. We aren’t afraid of being called cray if we see something unusual; and most of us are open minded to the unexplained.
4. There is a growing use of technology among our citizens that is not available in most societies, and we use it to record, report and discuss.
Dave
I THOUGHT UFO SIGHTINGS WERE FAKE.UNTIL LAST NIGHT I WAS WALKING MY DOG “POO-PEE” AND ALL OF THE SUDDEN HE WAS BARKING AT THE SKY. ALL I COULD SEE WAS BLACK ,BUT I HEARD A FUNNY SOUND I NEVER HEARD BEFORE A VERY HIGH PITCH .THEN A LIGHT SHOT DOWN ON ME …NEXT THANG I KNOW I WAKE UP ON THE GRASS WITH MY DOG LICKING ME. I FELT A SLIGHT STOMACH ACHE AND I WAS STILL DIZZY,I WENT BACK IN MY HOUSE AND THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED.NEXT DAY I WAS JUMPING IN THE SHOWER GETTING READY FOR WORK AND I NOTICED ON MY BACK SOME WRITINGS AS I LOOKED CLOSER IT SAID JESUS WAS HERE.. I GUESS JESUS IS REALLY AN ALIEN NO WONDER HE CAN DO ALL THOSE TRICKS.
I was in novi scotia and i heard an extreamly high pitch ( i was w/ pepl but only i could hear it ) then i looked up it the sky and saw a ufo luckly my dad was taking a picture now i have evidence.
Shayne Peace
The USA is not the only country to experience mass UFO sightings. Russia, Mexico, Britain, and virtually every country in the world has mass reports. Several foreign governments say there are UFOs and they have agencies in place to deal with it.
“Note, this data is only for the United States (where most UFOs appear of course).”
Is totally inaccurate.
uh maybe theres so many ufo sightings in arizona cause theres alot of desert areas there and UFO’s like to stay away from mass populated areas.
I believe that the United States has some kind of connection or alliance with beings from other planets. The only reason that nevada has the most UFO sightings is because the government created an underground base where Aliens share information. Why do you think that the U.S has such advanced technology in weapons and aircrafts? Are 51 does not show in the maps but it is for sure that it exists.
on september 22nd 2007 at 3 a.m.,i woke to the sihgt of a brilliant white lite with a long tail hissing thru the sky,very low.it appeared to go down in alocal field(johnson city,tenn.).i searched for 2 days.i have found a substance which,on the internet or in astronomy encyclopedias,may be unknown.it is lightweight,unlike meteors,and NEON orange.the alee side during flight is NEON orange,while the side facing the atmosphere is peeled back,white and bubbly or pocked.it is light and not very big.i have not searched (no chance yet.)for more,but have done research and this matches nothing.help identifying would be greatly appreciated.thanks,god bless.
One evening about 1969 (I can’t remember exactly) I was traveling North Near Inyokern, CA and saw a large essentially perfectly round “fireball” heading towards us from the North. I pulled over and got out and stood watching as it went over us. It was not going fast like a shooting star, it was slow and predictable giving me time to pull over and get out! It was large, appeared perfectly round and dark, outlined with sparks and some flame debris as I remember… and though it must have been very high skimming the atmosphere as the edge was sparking and so on, there was no sound whatsoever. I watched as it disappeared down to the South towards L.A. The next day on the news it mentioned people in L.A. had also seen the object disappear off over the Pacific. Can anyone advise where I could recover information on this, some record of it occurring other than my remembering? Thanks.
I was out in my back yard in ohio. n this round floatin device landed about 300 feet from me. I didnt no wat it was so i turned round n yelled my wife, when i turned round again there was dis green person with 1 big eye standing right next 2 me. he hit me over he head wid a bat n grabbed my wife n put her in a bag. i havent seen or heard from her since
I am a nuclear physysist and have several degrees from institutions of higher educations thoughout the globe. I am by no means insane and when I tell you that I have seen aliens and even talked to them in person you can believe me for certain. Just this word of warning, however, they are not all friendly. I have never met an unfriendly one yet, but I have been informed by intergalactic travelers who have that they are out there and that a visit is eminent. We, fortunately, have a line of defense that they are not privey to. Please write this down so that you will be prepared. Take a roll of Reynolds wrap foil, and first line a pair of fruit of the loom underwear with it. Get a Boston Red Sox cap and line the interior of that with the foil. When they come you must put these on and shout three times “by the power of the third cycle of clarastofin I reject you.” You will be saved. May the force be with you. Your friend, T Alvin Einstein
In January 1992 I went to Rio de Janeiro with my husband and 4 kids ,we stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Sao Corrado, more or less at 9 pm I saw this big brigt UFO static against the hill, suddenly it went left (at a very high speed )I immediately called my family, who came to the balcony, from then on, it went at sudden and very fast movements.left , right, up,down and made approachs. The phenomenom lasted for several minutes. As soon as it disappeared I went to the lobby, no one had reported the object ! Next morning, there was nothing about it in the newspaper !! So we dismissed our sighting,never talked about this experience again and today I watch Larry King Live in CNN and there is these whole bunch of important people who have had sightings !!!! I cant wait to call my family tomorrow and remember our experience ! I am curious why we never talked about it maybe it is because we are skeptics, all these years not a word !!!!
I correct the date of my sighting in Rio de Janeiro it was probably in 1994 (we used to travel there, every year) My youngest daughter who was then 9, remembers the event. She says she will believe the day she sees an alien coming out of an UFO , but she saw it !!!!! We were 6, quite a number to have a collective hallucination !!
Bye
my family and i went out to arizona (tuscon) and on our last night my mother in law who (lives there) along with my husband my sons and myself noticed two military jets flying fast toward us. we thought that was cool, my son is 14 and loves the military, so we watch as they started to pass but then we saw what they were behind… it looked like a star in the sky traveling just as fast as the jets. we couldn’t explain it, it was the smallest ball of light in the dark sky and it was flying very, very low, so it wasn’t the distance that made it look small. it was amazing!! we never thought we’d see something like that. she lives there and has never seen anything like it. i was so glad to be with so many others who saw it too,because they probably would have thought i was nuts. we’re still talking about it. the date was oct 23, 2007 best night of our lives!!
“I think there is a good reason for why so many U.S. citizens report UFO’s –
1. we have freedom to do so, and don’t always get censored..
2. we are technologically advanced to many other countries.
3. We aren’t afraid of being called cray if we see something unusual; and most of us are open minded to the unexplained.
4. There is a growing use of technology among our citizens that is not available in most societies, and we use it to record, report and discuss.
Dave”
Just to answer Dave.
First that was a pretty dumb comment. How come you USA citizens are not censored? You always “losing” proofs of this and that, guys are wiped out so they don’t talk to the media about classified information. You just don’t even know what you spot on the air. They are UFO’s all right, ‘cuz they’re not identified. But the question is, are that secret military technology? Are that alien technology? Still unknown, and guess what? USA’s fault, your government covers up everything. If you go out and check the news you’ll see that allot of governments, including, France, British, and even Mexico already admitted that the sightings are not Weather balloons, Meteors and flares. Which means they’re not covering up anything. Mexico Defence department even sent to media the videos from the military planes which sighted 11 UFO’s. So how come you’re not censored?
How come you’re most advanced so which means you can see more UFO’s? Your eyes have night vision incorporated?
Think better before your post again
I don’t think it’s valid to suggest that most UFOs appear in the USA. That could be where most reports come from. There are very few reports from uninhabited areas, for the simple reason that few people are there to make the reports. What would be interesting to see would be the relationship of the number of reports to the population.
I dont like math so you compare the statistics on your own time.
Indeed, that got me thinking, why are most of the reported sightings almost always in the US? Well, it could probably mean that the other sightings in other parts of the world either do not get reported or, the reports never reach a worldwide news service.
It would yes, indeed be arrogant to believe that in the vastness of the universe, we could be the only intelligent and civilized (yes we claim to be) living beings around.
I think, no, I am sure I saw the same ufo’s. The first was in Grafenver Germany while in the field playing FA army man. I was on top of my MLRS track looking at the blue sky when I saw 3 tumbeling siver things. At firts I thought they were rockets or somthing like that but they moved forward then backward(1985).
The second time I saw the same thing in Ft. Washington MD in spring of 2007 at my home. They were about 3000 feet up silver and fliping north then south then north then they picked up speed.
It is amazing that so many people posting comments here cannot use simple grammar or spell their words correctly. How can anyone take these people seriously?
Are Ufos real you bet they are come and join us for discussions on this subject. Http:WWW.msnusers.com/ufobriefing you might have to copy and pate the url but please come and join and lets find out together about ufos My site has been there since 1999.
I saw last night a flying object in sky i forgot the exact time but moving from south-east to north-east on the roof top of my uncle on second floor..then a minutes pass i saw again the same object came from north-west moving to south west….
i think the area which sees most ufo sightings is south america (mexico and so on).i find it more than coincidental that these are the places where the great ancient cultures (mayans,incas),who strongly believed and wrote about the existance of alien races used to live.the mayans preached that we were put here by them so could it not be the case of a kind of home coming/check up of the original place?alot of nations have huge numbers of ufo sightings not just in america and i think one of the main reasons the usa have so many is because theres more people living there than most countries and because its one of the worlds big super powers.i strongly disagree with the point maade thatits because americans are free to do so many nations are free to do and say what they feel and many had freedom before the usa.if america has done anything for the field of ufos then it is introduce extreme ridicule,laughter,slanderous comments,and personal destruction to anyone who publicly hints that theyv seen a ufo.so i wouldnt exactly say its because of freedom in the usa
i was about 8 or 7 years old i am from chile . it was a very clear sky day bvery nice day me an a friend were playing soccer . wen my friend pointed at the sky wen i saw a silver line very slim, moving right to left very very fast i asume it bust been maybe like a 150 feets witch it cover in less then a socond i never talk about with my family like kids do never toll anyone till today .. . ,, if anyone its curious please look up on youtube.com disturbing phone call it about an ex are 51 employed..
Still no sightings on the predicted date oct 14th 2008 … maybe blossom goodchild is again a false prophet and nothing will happen … just like Ronald Weinland … but as told, in the end-time … the first thing that comes are false prophets … Edgar Cayce, Nostradamus, Merlin, Mother Shipton, Hopi Indians and mayan prophecies all predicted the same, first false prophets and earth changes ! Check out the timeline on http://www.alamongordo.com — The only thing that coulld be correct is the WebBot Prophecy that this month something big would happen ! More about the real endtime timeline soon at http://www.alamongordo.com
On the evening n December 25 around 1030 I was putting my grandughter to sleep, as I looked out the window I saw a bright star that twinkled. i thought that the sghtings we saw a few weeks ago being the 2 planets near the moon had moved, so i decided to go and take a closer look, I watched it while i put her to sleep which was about 15 minutes. I then thought it was a glare on the mirror since it didnt move or a street post, but the posts in our area Ft Washington MD are not that high. I went and laid her down and got my binoculars. I had kept them out from my little gil looking at the planets a few weeks ago. It was still twinkling and appeared to hav alternating patterns of colors and then nothing. This was too weird so I opened the window to seee better but closed it it was cold out. AI kept looking at it from the binoculars in amazment, it did not move, then finally it began to move crazy like up then down then began to move across, i was like oh Sh***T what the hell. it then began to move across the sky, like cloud view or helicopter, inbetween, still had the color alternating thing, and a whoosing sound like a jet but deeper in sound, I appeared to have a dk grey metallic like stucture with like some red lights amongst the bottom. As fast as it was and that crazy noise was unbelievable. i stood in the window kept sayign Oh my God and then started crying. I didnt know what to do or say, i then got my son up who always has stated that he sees some different planes and told him about it. he said he had just heard the noise but did not know what it was. Please know that i am just a normal person, i do not drink or do drugs so this was not some imagination. I have been googleing all morn to see if anyone else saw this. If so pls contact me. I do believe in “UFO” as they call them, but never did i expect to see one in my lifetime. I am just in amazment and the image keeps playing in my head and the sound…….
I think that the reason that most reports of UFO sightings occur in the US, is the fact that most people I know don’t watch international news so therefor do not hear about the UFO sightings in other countries and are led to the mistaken idea that aliens must love the US.
I just wanted to reply to this –
“I think there is a good reason for why so many U.S. citizens report UFO’s –
1. we have freedom to do so, and don’t always get censored..
2. we are technologically advanced to many other countries.
3. We aren’t afraid of being called cray if we see something unusual; and most of us are open minded to the unexplained.
4. There is a growing use of technology among our citizens that is not available in most societies, and we use it to record, report and discuss.
Dave
Posted by: Dave M at June 26, 2007 12:55 AM”
Ok first and foremost the USA is one of the most censored (apart from perhaps china) countries in the world. The government is so suppressive it is very surprising there is any free speech there. For example recently the UK released private government UFO files which you can find here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos/
The USA government wouldn’t dream of releasing files to the public.
My final point is you seem to be very narrow minded, the technology to “record” is available in the rest of the world, we do not all run around with sticks and stones. The reason there are the most sightings in the USA is commercial and i do believe Americans are superstitious which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Another source: map based on Wikipedia’s long list of UFO sightings.
I’m still in high school, but as a research project, I created a hypothesis, “If there are meteor sightings, then there will be more UFO sightings, because people will confuse meteors for UFOs.” The data I found displayed that there are not nearly as many reports from other countries than there are from the United States. I was on the National UFO Reporting Center website, and from what 114 reports for one month, there were only around 20-30 from other countries. So reports from other countries do not come anywhere near the amount of reports from the United States. It’s quite funny, actually.
Area 51 doesn’t appear on maps? What universe do you speak of?
Google Earth will show you Area 51, just do the “fly to” routine and you are there, they even have a Google Earth tour of it.
the aliens usually land in desert areas like AZ because less people live there and hardly any one will notice
In August 1978 a friend and I were driving south on highway Business 51 about 5 miles south of Tomahawk in north central Lincoln county Wisconsin at approx.11PM,when we saw an object either Cylindrical or Disc shaped with a row of multi colored large lights on its side.We stopped the car and watched it silently glide away to the north east until it disappeared over the trees.We drove in that direction but could not find it again.The next day there were reports of sightings across the area.
Come Celebrate World UFO Day Festival in Memphis, Tennesse, home of Elvis Presley – the coolest alien of them all.
There are several reasons why this day has found it’s way into the world. One of the first and foremost reasons is to raise awareness about the undoubted existence of UFO’s and with that intelligent beings from outer space. This day is also used to encourage governments to declassify their knowledge about sightings throughout the history. Many governments, the US government for instance, are believed to have gained exclusive information about UFO’s through their military departments. A subject that still raises a lot of curiosity is the Roswell incident in 1947 when a believed UFO crashed in Roswell New Mexico.
http://www.worldufodaymemphis.org/