LATTICE-1

A Buildable Multi-Sensor Station for Aerial Anomaly Detection

Design basis, bill of materials, coincidence logic, and operating protocol

Prepared as a citizen-science instrument note. It specifies a passive ground station that can be assembled from commercial parts. It does not claim a sensor that identifies unidentified anomalous phenomena as a positive class.

18^th October 2026

Abstract

Unidentified anomalous phenomena, abbreviated UAP, are a residual category. An object earns the label only after ordinary explanations have been tested and found insufficient. A device that “detects UAP” in the strict sense therefore cannot exist until the physical signature of the residual class is known. What can be built is a calibrated aerial census station that records every detectable object, rejects known classes with independent evidence, and archives the remainder as candidates.

This paper specifies LATTICE-1, a single-site passive station scaled from the multimodal architecture published by the Galileo Project and from the sensor recommendations of the NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team. The core instrument combines a wide-field visible camera, a software-defined radio for Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) and spectrum context, a three-axis magnetometer placed clear of local electronics, an acoustic channel, a weather sensor, and a GPS pulse-per-second time base. An optional long-wave infrared camera adds thermal contrast. A candidate event requires a track that survives aircraft, drone, bird, meteor, balloon, satellite, and instrument-artifact tests inside a defined coincidence window. Approximate parts cost for the core station is 400 to 700 USD, excluding a second site for triangulation.