---
datasets:
  - kaggle
language:
  - en
task_categories:
  - text-classification
  - text-retrieval
  - time-series-forecasting
pretty_name: "UFO Sightings Unified Semantic Dataset"
size_categories:
  - 100K<n<1M
license: mit
tags:
  - ufo
  - ufology
  - anomalous-phenomena
  - embeddings
  - hdbscan
  - semantic-search
  - cluster-analysis
  - dataset
  - geospatial
  - moon-illumination
  - aviation
---
# **UFO Sightings – Cleaned & Unified Dataset (~327k rows)**

This dataset merges several publicly available UFO sighting datasets from Kaggle into one **cleaned**, **standardized**, and **enriched** file.
The goal is simply to provide a consolidated dataset instead of many fragmented sources with inconsistent formatting.

This release contains **a single JSONL file** with approximately **327,000 records**.

No private or identifying information was present in the original data.

---

## **📦 Source**

All entries originate from publicly available UFO sighting datasets on **Kaggle**.
Each row corresponds to a single reported sighting.
Source Files located in source folder
---

## **🧹 Cleaning / Normalization Performed**

All rows in this unified file were standardized using the same basic rules:

* timestamps parsed and converted into a consistent `t_utc` (ISO-8601, UTC)
* city/state/country fields harmonized where possible
* latitude/longitude coerced to floats
* basic HTML/unicode cleanup in free-text descriptions (`text`)
* invalid or fully unparseable rows removed
* source field preserved as `src`

No interpretation or filtering based on content was performed.

---

## **✨ Added Contextual Fields**

A small number of lightweight “sidecar” fields were added based on timestamp + coordinates:

* **`moon_illum`** — moon illumination fraction
* **`moon_alt_deg`** — moon altitude in degrees
* **`nearest_airport_code`** — closest airport (ICAO)
* **`nearest_airport_km`** — distance to that airport in km
* **`wx_bucket`** — rough weather bucket (coarse category)

These values are approximate and should be treated as exploratory metadata only.

---

## **🧩 Clustering Fields (Included in the File)**

The dataset includes two fields that come from text-similarity grouping:

* **`cluster_id`** — numeric label
* **`prob`** — membership confidence

These reflect **text similarity**, not verified categories or event types.
They are included because they were already part of the cleaned file.

---

## **📝 Field Reference**

Each row has the following structure (example):

```
{
  "uid": "scrubbed/row327047",
  "t_utc": "2013-09-09T09:51:00.000Z",
  "lat": 32.7152778,
  "lon": -117.1563889,
  "text": "2 white lights zig-zag over Qualcomm Stadium...",
  "src": "scrubbed",
  "city": "san diego",
  "state": "ca",
  "country": "US",

  "cluster_id": 725,
  "prob": 1.0,

  "moon_illum": 0.163603127,
  "moon_alt_deg": -67.0003509521,
  "nearest_airport_km": 3.7174715996,
  "nearest_airport_code": "KSAN",
  "reports_z": null,
  "wx_bucket": "unknown"
}
```

### **Field descriptions**

| Field                      | Type       | Notes                                            |
| -------------------------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| `uid`                      | string     | Stable row identifier                            |
| `t_utc`                    | string     | Event timestamp, ISO-8601 UTC                    |
| `lat`, `lon`               | float      | Approximate coordinates                          |
| `city`, `state`, `country` | string     | Cleaned location fields (best-effort)            |
| `text`                     | string     | Free-text sighting description                   |
| `src`                      | string     | Original Kaggle dataset source                   |
| `cluster_id`               | int        | Text-similarity cluster (for research use only)  |
| `prob`                     | float      | Cluster membership probability                   |
| `moon_illum`               | float      | Moon illumination (0–1)                          |
| `moon_alt_deg`             | float      | Moon altitude in degrees                         |
| `nearest_airport_km`       | float      | Distance to nearest airport                      |
| `nearest_airport_code`     | string     | ICAO code                                        |
| `wx_bucket`                | string     | Approximate weather category                     |
| `reports_z`                | float/null | Unused placeholder field (kept for completeness) |

---

## **⚠️ Notes & Limitations**

* Accuracy of timestamps and locations depends entirely on original reporting.
* Weather buckets are coarse (not NOAA-grade).
* Airport distances are approximate nearest-neighbor lookups.
* Cluster labels are based solely on text similarity and do **not** reflect event reality.
* No claims are made about the nature or validity of any sighting.

---

## **📄 License**

Source data was public on Kaggle.
This cleaned, merged, and lightly enriched version is released for **research and educational use**.
Users should follow the original dataset licensing terms.