Are computers used to study UFOs?
Many UFO reports are recorded on a computer database called UFOCAT.
The UFOCAT computer database was started by Dr. David R. Saunders as part of the Condon UFO Project at the University of Colorado duringthe late 1960s. It was continued by Dr. Saunders and CUFOS until 1980,at which time UFOCAT contained about 106,000 entries. The UFOCAT project was inactive for ten years but has recently been reactivatedby Dr. Donald Johnson, a former associate of Dr. Saunders and CUFOS board member.
Originally stored on a mainframe computer, UFOCAT can now be maintained on a personal computer. Although the database lacks many cases from the 1980s, it is still the largest information base on UFO reports, and efforts are underway to add as many unrecorded cases to the system as possible. UFOCAT has fields to record information on dozens of report parameters, including date, location, weather, number of witnesses, effects on witnesses, type of UFO and size, and UFO maneuvers.
It does not record narrative details of a UFO report, but instead codes the report information according to a system devised by Dr. Saunders. UFOCAT has been used by many serious researchers to study patterns in location, time, and types of UFO reports. UFOCAT information is available only to serious academic scholars and researchers.