BOLIDE — TOULOUSE, GLEIZE (31, 69) 15.09.2014

The 15 September 2014 phenomenon was initially reported to GEIPAN by 2 witnesses in Toulouse and 1 in Gleizé (69). GEIPAN's Toulouse camera recorded it for more than 10 seconds. Seven further accounts arrived in the following days (see the attached observation summary). From Toulouse it crossed the southern horizon west to east at low elevation, from 10° to 0° according to the camera. Many witnesses near Perpignan also saw it, and the local press covered it under “New asteroid in the Catalan sky.” It has all the characteristics of a meteoroid—a small rocky body orbiting the Sun—entering the atmosphere. The luminous phenomenon occurred at approximately 60–25 km altitude and ended over the Mediterranean. Its relatively shallow path along Earth's surface explains the long duration; by contrast, the fireball of 7 September had a much steeper trajectory. Space debris is excluded because no reentry was known and the speed was too high for debris in Earth orbit. Multiple accounts and camera recordings provide very strong evidence, and strangeness after analysis is very low. GEIPAN classifies the case A: a large fireball caused by a meteoroid entering the atmosphere.