Open Data

Every dataset on this site is served as structured JSON from stable URLs. No API key, no rate limits, no authentication. Fetch what you need and build on it.

114025 Sightings

1030 Cases

1934 People

52603 Articles

How the data is structured

The archive is an Eleventy static site. All data lives in JSON files served from the /data/ path. Large datasets (sightings, cases, people) are split into numbered chunk files for client-side rendering of detail pages. Index files provide lookup tables mapping IDs to chunk numbers.

Every URL below is relative to https://nhinewsnetwork.com. Append the path to the site URL to fetch any file directly.

Sightings

114,000+ sighting records spanning 1000 CE to 2026, covering 209 countries.

File	URL	Description
sightings.geojson	/data/sightings.geojson	GeoJSON FeatureCollection for the sightings map. Each feature has coordinates and popup card fields (id, year, location, country, description, source, shape, colour).
sightings_search.json	/data/sightings_search.json	Full sightings search index (39 MB). Each record: id, year, location, country, description, source, shape, colour, duration, witnesses.
sighting-index.json	/data/sighting-index.json	Lookup table mapping sighting IDs to chunk file numbers. Use to find which chunk contains a given sighting.
sighting-chunks/{n}.json	/data/sighting-chunks/0.json	388 chunk files. Each contains ~250 full sighting records with all fields for the detail page.

Sighting record schema

{
  "Sighting_ID": "S-030",
  "Year": 1947,
  "Date": "June 24, 1947",
  "Location": "Mount Rainier, Washington",
  "Country": "United States",
  "State": "Washington",
  "Latitude": 46.8523,
  "Longitude": -121.7603,
  "Description": "Nine bright objects moving at high speed...",
  "Object_Shape": "Disc/Saucer",
  "Object_Colour": "Silver/metallic",
  "Duration": "2-3 minutes",
  "Witnesses": "Kenneth Arnold (pilot)",
  "Source": "APRO Bulletin",
  "Evidence_Type": "Visual, Multiple witness",
  "Investigation_Status": "Confirmed",
  "Notes": "The sighting that coined the term 'flying saucer'"
}

Cases

1,030 investigated cases with cross-references to people, newsletters, books, and videos.

File	URL	Description
cases.json	/data/cases.json	All 1,030 cases with full fields: name, alt names, year, location, coordinates, category, summary, People_IDs, Newsletter_Refs, Gov_Program_Refs.
case-index.json	/data/case-index.json	Lookup table mapping case IDs to chunk file numbers.
case-chunks/{n}.json	/data/case-chunks/0.json	21 chunk files with full case records for detail pages.

Case record schema

{
  "Case_ID": "CASE-001",
  "Case_Name": "Roswell Incident",
  "Alt_Names": "Roswell Crash;Roswell UFO;Foster Ranch Crash",
  "Year": 1947,
  "End_Year": "Single event",
  "Location": "Roswell, New Mexico",
  "Country": "USA",
  "State": "New Mexico",
  "Latitude": 33.3943,
  "Longitude": -104.523,
  "Category": "Crash/Retrieval",
  "Summary": "Rancher Mac Brazel found anomalous debris...",
  "People_IDs": "PER-0045;PER-0112;PER-0233",
  "Newsletter_Refs": "APRO Bulletin;MUFON UFO Journal",
  "Gov_Program_Refs": "Project Mogul;MJ-12"
}

People

1,930+ researchers, witnesses, military personnel, and government officials.

File	URL	Description
people_search.json	/data/people_search.json	Search index with name, role, organisation, country, era, and bio for each person.
person-index.json	/data/person-index.json	Lookup table mapping person IDs to chunk file numbers.
person-chunks/{n}.json	/data/person-chunks/0.json	36 chunk files with full person records, bios, and case links.

Newsletter Articles

52,600+ articles extracted from 350+ periodical collections.

File	URL	Description
newsletter_search.json	/data/newsletter_search.json	All 52,600+ articles. Fields: id, p (publication), t (title), a (author), ct (content type), s (summary), tags.

Newsletter article schema

{
  "id": "NL-A01",
  "p": "Australian Flying Saucer Review (AFSRS)",
  "t": "Editorial",
  "a": "M.E. Dodd (Editor)",
  "ct": "Editorial",
  "s": "Welcome to first 1968 issue...",
  "tags": "Editorial, McDonald, AFSRS, 1968"
}

Encyclopedia and Clippings

Encyclopedia entries and newspaper clipping indexes.

File	URL	Description
encyclopedia.json	/data/encyclopedia.json	Combined encyclopedia: cases, organisations, and people entries.
encyclopedia_cases.json	/data/encyclopedia_cases.json	Case entries only (for filtered views).
encyclopedia_people.json	/data/encyclopedia_people.json	People entries only.
encyclopedia_orgs.json	/data/encyclopedia_orgs.json	Organisation entries only.
clippings_index.json	/data/clippings_index.json	Newspaper clipping index from the UFO Newsclipping Service collection.

Usage examples

All files are plain JSON served over HTTPS. No authentication required.

Fetch all cases (JavaScript)

const res = await fetch("https://nhinewsnetwork.com/data/cases.json");
const cases = await res.json();
console.log(`Loaded ${cases.length} cases`);
// Filter to crash/retrieval cases
const crashes = cases.filter(c => c.Category === "Crash/Retrieval");

Load a specific sighting by ID (JavaScript)

// 1. Load the index to find the chunk number
const idx = await fetch("https://nhinewsnetwork.com/data/sighting-index.json").then(r => r.json());
const chunkNum = idx["S-030"]; // returns chunk file number

// 2. Load the chunk
const chunk = await fetch(`https://nhinewsnetwork.com/data/sighting-chunks/${chunkNum}.json`).then(r => r.json());
const sighting = chunk["S-030"];

Fetch sightings GeoJSON (Python)

import requests
import json

url = "https://nhinewsnetwork.com/data/sightings.geojson"
data = requests.get(url).json()
print(f"Loaded {len(data['features'])} sightings")

# Filter to pre-1900 sightings
historical = [f for f in data["features"]
              if f["properties"].get("year", 2000) < 1900]

Licence and attribution

This data is compiled from government records, grassroots research organisations, and other public sources. It is provided as a free public resource. If you use the data in your work, a credit line is appreciated:

Data from the NHI Master Archive, nhinewsnetwork.com

Questions or suggestions? Email contact@nhinewsnetwork.com.