GONDRECOURT-LE-CHATEAU (55) 16.09.2012

On 16 September 2012 at 16:40, a walker saw a white, cloud-like ball approaching him while remaining high in the sky. As it approached, the object, estimated at 1 cm, appeared to grow to about 3 times its volume. He took a photograph. GEIPAN received his account in May 2013. GEIPAN examined the possibility of a windborne object. Unfortunately, there is no weather station near Gondrecourt. Records at Saint-Dizier (52), 45 km away, and Nancy-Essey, 55 km away, show extremely variable wind directions, including northeast, southwest, south and southeast, and speeds of 4–25 km/h. It is therefore impossible to establish that the object was windborne, although GEIPAN considers this highly probable. The object changed from white near the zenith, as seen in the photograph, to grey near the horizon. GEIPAN considers this more suggestive of a fairly low object than a cloud. Its marked apparent growth during the sighting also favours a very low altitude. If it were 100 m high, a 12 km/h wind would carry it across half the sky, 90°, in 1 minute, travelling 200 m. The reported shape could fit a ball of down, perhaps blown from a nest, or a swarm of insects. These are only hypotheses and cannot be confirmed. Without local wind measurements or a way to estimate altitude, GEIPAN classifies the case C: insufficient precise information for a substantiated assessment.