Driven by a desire for transparency and fueled by technological advancements, a groundbreaking citizen science project named Sky360 is taking UFO observation into the hands of the people. As government agencies grapple with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), often met with skepticism and secrecy, Sky360 is building a global network of affordable, open-source monitoring stations. This initiative aims to provide continuous, 24/7 surveillance of the skies, utilizing AI and machine learning to identify and analyze anomalous aerial activity, potentially revolutionizing how we understand the mysteries above.
From Skepticism to Citizen-Led Surveillance
Public interest in UFOs has historically fluctuated, often reigniting with significant events like the Pentagon’s recent declassification of the “Tic Tac” videos in 2020. This official acknowledgment of unexplained aerial phenomena served to validate long-held suspicions and spurred renewed curiosity. However, an undercurrent of distrust in official narratives persists. Despite the Director of National Intelligence releasing reports on UAP sightings, many cases remain unresolved, and further transparency is often curtailed under the guise of national security concerns. This lack of complete disclosure has fueled a desire for independent investigation and verification.
In contrast to past, less technologically advanced approaches to UFO detection, such as early 20th-century “geomagnetic detectors” or short-lived software projects like UFO ID, Sky360 leverages modern, accessible technology. It represents a significant leap forward, aiming to establish a distributed network of autonomous units capable of gathering and analyzing real-time data. While citizen-led UFO research isn’t entirely new, with organizations like MUFON having decades of investigative experience, Sky360 believes that the confluence of public interest and technological maturity has reached a critical point. This allows citizen scientists to generate substantial, actionable data independently.
Richard G Hopf, co-chair of Sky360, highlights the core motivation: “There’s distrust [regarding governmental handling of UAP sightings], and that’s why a citizen science approach, to take matters into our own hands and generate our own data, becomes crucial.” He points out that existing data is predominantly from military sensors, inaccessible for public scrutiny or academic analysis. This drive for independent data collection is central to Sky360’s mission.
A map of Sky360 stations currently looking out for UFOs around the world.
Alt text: Global map displaying locations of Sky360 monitoring stations actively engaged in UFO detection.
The Technology Behind Sky360: Affordable and Open Source
Each Sky360 station is designed for affordability and accessibility, comprising an AllSkyCam with a wide-angle fisheye lens and a pan-tilt-focus camera. The fisheye camera continuously monitors the entire sky, registering any movement. Sophisticated underlying software then performs an initial analysis of these events. If anomalous motion is detected, the system activates additional sensors and directs the pan-tilt-focus camera to zoom in, track, and further analyze the object.
Nikola Galiot, a key developer, explains that the software currently employs a computer vision “background subtraction” algorithm. This system identifies motion by comparing current frames to previous ones, tracking any movement and initiating automated classification. The system is built on the open-source TensorFlow machine learning platform, ensuring broad compatibility and deployability. Continuous data acquisition is crucial for improving the AI models and enhancing classification accuracy. The team’s next goal is to develop a unified algorithm capable of simultaneous detection, tracking, and classification.
Crucially, Sky360 prioritizes readily available and cost-effective hardware. All components, from cameras to passive radar and temperature gauges, can be purchased off-the-shelf globally. The project’s website provides schematics, blueprints, and equipment suggestions, encouraging widespread participation. With 20 stations already operational worldwide, from North America to Europe and remote locations like the Azores, the network is steadily expanding.
Bridging the Gap in Aerial Observation
While projects like SETI focus on extraterrestrial signals from distant space, Sky360 addresses a gap in observation closer to home – within our own atmosphere. Hopf notes that while some groups, like Ukrainian astronomers reporting numerous UFO sightings over Kyiv, are investigating local aerial phenomena, these efforts are often isolated. Sky360 aims to address this fragmentation by creating a large-scale, collaborative data network.
The open-source nature of Sky360 is not only philosophically aligned with citizen science but also practically advantageous. Open source principles are fundamental to the internet’s infrastructure and have long been vital in scientific research, exemplified by CERN’s open hardware standards and the open-source reliance of institutions like the Institute Laue-Langevin. By adopting open-source models, Sky360 makes advanced tools accessible to a broader population, empowering citizen scientists and fostering innovation at a lower cost.
Sarah Polan, field CTO at HashiCorp, emphasizes the power of open source in democratizing discovery: “Anytime you give more opportunities to discover to the general population, the more options you have for innovation and growth… Opening that up to open source hardware or software, or going down the AI route, is powerful for aggregating and managing all of that data. It’s really powerful to give that to a population, whether that’s looking for things like UFOs, or… to open source cell phones to bring internet to the bush—it’s just incredibly powerful across the board.”
Towards Real-Time, Transparent Data and the Future of UFO Detection
Sky360’s roadmap includes transitioning to real-time monitoring, aggregating data from all stations, and making it openly accessible for analysis. This commitment to transparency is a core tenet of the project. In June, Sky360 plans to release its first developer-oriented open-source build, featuring ‘SimpleTracker,’ a key component for image processing and anomaly detection. SimpleTracker analyzes camera feeds frame by frame, adjusting parameters for optimal image quality. It identifies motion and then employs machine learning algorithms trained on conventional aerial objects (planes, birds, insects) to classify movements. Anomalous movements are flagged for further scrutiny.
The decentralized, grassroots nature of Sky360, while empowering, also presents potential challenges. Hopf suggests that a predecessor project, SkyHub, with ties to US intelligence, was abruptly shut down under suspicious circumstances. To safeguard against similar issues, Sky360 is intentionally decentralized and distributing data peer-to-peer, exploring secure infrastructure like Tor and IPFS to enhance resilience and data security. Galiot emphasizes the goal of creating a system that is difficult to dismantle once deployed and distributed globally.
Whether Sky360 will definitively solve the UFO mystery remains to be seen. However, its innovative approach, leveraging citizen science and open-source technology, promises to democratize aerial observation and potentially offer unprecedented insights into unexplained aerial phenomena. By empowering individuals to participate in data collection and analysis, Sky360 is shifting the paradigm of UFO research, moving from “wanting to believe” to potentially “seeing for ourselves,” and perhaps even paving the way for future integration of similar scanning technologies in various fields, including advanced automotive systems – envisioning a future where even a “Ufo Scanning Car” might not be entirely out of the realm of possibility.
