UAP article in Frontiers in Earth Science Journal

Hi all,

A very interesting article has appeared in a recent issue of "Frontiers in Earth Science Journal." The title of the article is "To investigate or not to investigate? Researchers' views on unexplained atmospheric light phenomena."

The joint authors are:

1. Etienne Caron; Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.



Etienne Caron

2. Pouya Faridi; Department of Phytopharmaceuticals, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

Pouya Faridi

 

Introduction

 

In the introduction, the authors note that "Rare and unusual atmospheric lights have been reported in the Valley of Hessdalen (HL) in Norway for over a century..." Their characteristics include a "...free floating light ball with dimensions ranging from decimetres up to 30m..." These lights are accompanied by 'spikes' in HF and VLF frequencies; have an absolute luminosity about 19kw; and can be seen for durations ranging from seconds to hours.

 

The authors point out that these lights differ from ball lightning; blue jets; red sprites and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes.

 

It is noted that the academic community has paid little attention to these and other examples of such lights, with one reason being "...the misleading association of HL with the controversial 'unidentified flying object (UFO)' phenomena, an association that has nevertheless been disproven by the referred-to frequent, rigorous observation of the phenomena."

 

 

Survey

 

The authors conducted an online survey by asking "...are researchers within the academic community interested in understanding the nature and origin of unexplained and/or poorly understood luminous phenomena occurring in the low atmosphere such as HL? More precisely we asked whether or not funding agencies (public and/or private) and universities should seriously support rigorous scientific investigation of UAP that have been traditionally been neglected by the academic community?"

 

A survey was sent to 6,049 researchers who were "...past or current beneficiaries of funding from the European Commission" in 90 countries. Emails invited them "...to read a  short article titled 'Scientific investigation on UAP' before responding anonymously."

 

The return rate was about 5 %, compared to an average online survey response of about 51%.

 

Results

 

58% of respondents "...think that research on UAP should not be neglected and should be supported by funding agencies...In addition, 52% of respondents would like to contribute to a better understanding of UAP if they could see a way to do it."

 

 

The way forward

 

The authors suggest that "...new, state-of-the-art automated stations continuously recording data will also be instrumental for measuring the phenomena."

 

 

Conclusion

 

"In the 80's, HL were defined as "UFOs" and were rejected by most scientists. Thanks to the scientific method and the pioneering work of Erling P Strand, the atmospheric light anomaly observed in the Valley of Hessdalen in Norway is now slowly gaining the attention of the scientific community and the respect of Academic journals...we propose that further investigation in UAP/HL through sustained amount of stable and long-term funding could lead to scientific breakthrough, advance the field of photonics, and thereby contribute to solving key related societal challenges, such as energy generation and energy efficiency, healthy ageing of the population , climate change and security."

 

Citation:

 

Caron, E and Faridi, P. (2016.) "To investigate or not to investigate? Researchers' views on unexplained atmospheric light phenomena." Front. Earth Sci. 4:17. doi10.3389/feart.2016.00017.

 

The complete article may be read here.

To view a 2014 presentation, on Hessdalen, for GEIPAN, by Erling P Strand, click here.