Preface: Instrumentation and Software for the Detection and Characterization of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena

Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (UAP) have resisted explanation and have received little formal scientific attention for 75 years. The Galileo Project team seeks to understand the origins of UAP and Interstellar Objects (ISO) through astronomical and atmospheric surveys as well as space-based observations.

Five of the papers in this Special Issue of JAI are aimed at the question of detecting, tracking, and characterizing UAP from a ground-based observatory. They comprise a description of an integrated software and instrumentation platform designed to conduct a multimodal census of aerial phenomena and to recognize anomalies. These papers provide a detailed roadmap from observable aerial objects, through instrument requirements, to outlier identification. The multimodal and multispectral suite described consists of wide-field cameras for detection and tracking; narrow-field instruments for characterizing morphology, spectra, polarimetry, and photometry; passive multistatic arrays of antennas and receivers for radar-derived range and kinematics; radio spectrum analyzers; infrasonic, audible, and ultrasonic sampling microphones; and environmental sensors for characterizing ambient conditions, as well as quasistatic electric and magnetic fields, and energetic particles. The sixth paper examines a method for satellite detection of objects moving in Earth’s atmosphere. Also included in this Special Issue are papers describing the physical constraints on an ISO intercept mission and an overview of the Galileo Project itself.

More information can be found about the project at https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/.