BALMA (31) 21.12.2013

In February 2016, a witness reported photographing an unexplained luminous phenomenon in a clear sky at Balma (31) between 16:29 and 16:33 on 21 December 2013. No further accounts were collected. GEIPAN found all the characteristics of a parhelion, or sundog, part of a solar halo. The source cites 2 items labelled “Parhelion” and a Météo-France image, photograph 6. Because the supplied images were not original files, GEIPAN could not verify an exact 22° separation from the Sun, but considered the appearance and reference-image comparisons decisive. The Sun's elevation was 6°30′, which it considered consistent with the stated 22° separation. Météociel's Toulouse-Blagnac record showed southerly wind and a sharp pressure fall signalling an approaching disturbance. GEIPAN associated this with very high, cold cirrus or cirrostratus cloud, whose ice crystals favour sundogs, despite the initial description of a clear sky. It classified the case A: a characteristic parhelion.