Erling Strand

Erling Strand is a Norwegian professor of physics and chemistry at Østfold University College who heads the Hessdalen long-term research project on anomalous lights. After a personal observation in 1982 he founded Project Hessdalen in 1983 together with colleagues and has since run — over more than 40 years — one of the longest-running scientific field studies of unexplained aerial phenomena in the world.

• Norwegian professor of physics and chemistry at Østfold University College
• Personal sighting of the Hessdalen lights in 1982 as the starting point
• Founded Project Hessdalen in 1983 together with colleagues
• Field work since 1984 with magnetometric, radiometric and radar instruments
• EMBLA project (2000–2002) measuring the electromagnetic behaviour of the lights
• In 1998 established the world's first 24/7 observatory, the "Blue Box", in the Hessdalen valley
• Collaboration with dozens of scientists and roughly 1,000 students; host of international conferences

For the UAP timeline, Strand is the main European representative of the long-term field-research approach: where other projects travel episodically to individual incidents, he has established a permanent observatory in Hessdalen. His 40-year data series provides the rare case of a UAP phenomenon that remains scientifically traceable across decades.