and the National UFO Reporting Center 
present the
2019  PROJECT  MATCH  REPORT

 
Potential Sightings of Interest & MADAR Anomalies




This report deals exclusively with bonified MADAR anomalies and Potential Sightings of Interest, those that we feel are representative of the UAP phenomena.  There were a number of interesting sightings that either had too distant connections or had no obvious correlations-in-time to be used in this report. There were also cases that were not used because certain data couldn't be confirmed. So this is an effort to show accurate results, many times using Multi-Server Verification.  This report will be subject to updating. Appropriate explanetory links are provided at the end of this summary.  The current INVESTIGATION_STATUS database report showing all these cases and others can be accessed at any time. Finally, any terms used in this report you are not familiar with are explained at the end of this report. - Fran Ridge, MADAR Operations Center.

Updated: 12 June 2024

August 23, 2019; West Hartford, Connecticut    
10:00 pm EDT.. A SKYWATCH team in Connecticut was conducting routine observations and running equipment tests on older and newer skywatch systems. They were tracking a conspicuous orange twinkling orb at around 22:00 hours (10:00 pm local), 02:00 UTC. The object on the western horizon first caught the attention of one of the group, who quickly alerted the rest of the team. Another team member had the night vision camera running with a tripod-mounted 20" flat screen with the NV camera on top. At first the orb was stationary. Once the target was moving, they had to manually track it on-screen, as it slowly moved from left to right (W-N). As it moved to the right it decreased in altitude. At one point the motion was described as "fell like a leaf". They watched it until it went below the tree line and out of sight. No noise was ever heard from the object.  Total time of observation: 30 mins. (MUFON CMS 103581). It was confirmed that MADAR node 139 at Wallingford did have six alerts during the skywatch but not during the NV scanning period beginning about 10:00 pm and separated in time by about an hour or so. It was also discovered that Wallingford had 76 hits that day and had an extremely high average ambient of 13,084 milligaus, which disqualified that node data for that date. 106 and 151 (field unit test node) at Newington  had no alerts but had some interesting field spikes under trigger within the data. If the sighting time was actually a little earlier than 10:00 pm, 151 shows spikes beginning at 9:55 pm and tapering off to 10:04, from 6 milligaus to zero in 9 minutes. The NV team-man had gotten MADAR alerts on his SMS/cell a little over an hour before, and he obtained screen grabs of six MADAR hits at site 139 at Wallingford a little over 30 miles to the south. The screen grabs were stamped as beginning at 8:44 pm. The area of the orb was near Plainville and there had been a hot-air balloon festival, and sometimes the participants launch japanese jackalanterns. MUFON investigators had written it off as a "jackalantern". Later on, it was discovered that the fire department had grounded all hot air balloons by 9:00 pm, as they were getting ready for a fireworks display. This pending case was re-opened on 20 Feb 2021. During the re-investigation it was discovered that the NV target was in view for a full 30 minutes. However, no recordings had been made. The NV target at West Hartford was in view for 30 minutes. [For rating/evaluation purposes the distance of the target was estimated at 5-7 miles]  Investigated by MUFON. Re-evaluated by MADAR CCO. The fuel source in each sky lantern will burn for approximately 8-10 minutes. When used in ideal weather conditions, sky lanterns will easily reach heights of over 1000 feet. Typically, it's between 700 and 1600 feet. They will usually make it between 2 and 5 miles from the original launch site before extinguishing.  Due to the interesting data found in several of the nearby MADAR site's, the case was re-evaluated. At that time we learned that the original explanation was not tenable for several reasons: 1) The fire department had grounded hot air balloons, including Chinese lanterns by 9:00 pm. 2) Chinese lanterns cannot be sustained for 30 minutes. 3) Somebody filed another UAP report for 10:05 pm at Ashford, CT.  The MADAR data is problematic in this case and has no bearing on the case proper but MUFON's CSM still lists the case as IFO. Our re-evaluation shows the case as "Unexplained".

September 28, 2019; Fishers, Indiana
10:22 pm. MADAR Node 84 had gone online earlier that month and was undergoing some adjustments with the aid of the MADAR Operations Center at Newburgh, Indiana. The MADAR Op at site 84, acting in a professional and scientific manner, was being cautious and had been having some suspicious MADAR "hits".  MOC had suggested a change in the shield or threshold setting in order to limit false alarms but yet allow the device to be the most sensitive to field changes. At the time of this incident the shield was set very low at 15 milligaus, about half of the now normal settings. The Op was out observing the sky with his Night Vision Generation 3 Goggles and picked up a NV target. He was unable to see it with the naked eye but with his NVG he looked up at 315 degrees on compass and was able to view a bright white non flashing light heading NW, and then curving directly west. But then the object did something a normal aircraft couldn't do. It suddenly accelerated upwards!  He had observed a few meteors this evening but this was definitely not a meteor.  Being only at Level One (without a DAS or alarm box) the Op was alerted to anomalies via SMS (short mail service) or cell phone text message, but this turned out to be very valuable. While watching this UAP he had gotten a few more alerts. He also observed some red flashing stationary lights but they appeared to be off to the NW in the far distance. The MADAR site field readings ranged from 2 milligaus to 18 milligaus. Hits 1,3,6 met Multi Sensor Verification protocols with the onboard compass readings varying 4 degrees on the first hit, 3 degrees on the second hit, and 4 degrees on the third hit. The Op completed a MADAR sighting certification questionnaire as per protocols. The report certifies that the Op observed unidentified objects both visually and with high quality night vision equipment. While watching targets with the Generation 3 NV goggles, one of the targets exhibited anomalistic motion by going vertical. At the time of this maneuver the MADAR site recorded a significant spike in field data (18 milligaus). The analysis of the data shows that an object only visible to night vision, observed during a series of MADAR alerts at the same location, went vertical at the approximate time of the the last anomaly which occurred at 10:22 pm. (Note: A CMS check later showed that less than three weeks prior and about 130 miles south of the MADAR site at Fishers, a similar sighting of a black object (which would have been invisible at night) was reported at Georgetown, Indiana had ascended directly upward.
 
END OF REPORT

Terms and acronyms used in this report:
nuforc = National UFO Reporting Center at Seattle, Washington
CCO = Case Certification Officer. Used when MUFON is not available.
MADAR dataprobe = official term for MADAR unit.
Operation Foal Eagle