We model the unidentified aerial phenomena observed in France during the last
60 years as a spatial point pattern. We use some public information such as
population density, rate of moisture or presence of airports to model the
intensity of the unidentified aerial phenomena. Spatial exploratory data
analysis is a first approach to appreciate the link between the intensity of
the unidentified aerial phenomena and the covariates. We then fit an
inhomogeneous spatial Poisson process model with covariates. We find that the
significant variables are the population density, the presence of the factories
with a nuclear risk and contaminated land, and the rate of moisture. The
analysis of the residuals shows that some parts of France (the Belgian border,
the tip of Britany, some parts in the SouthEast , the Picardie and
Haute-Normandie regions, the Loiret and Corr eze departments) present a high
value of local intensity which are not explained by our model