MATAFELON-GRANGES (01) 02.11.2014

On 2 November 2014 at 18:25, a witness saw an orange point of light move silently towards him, change direction, then move away while climbing into the clear sky. GEIPAN considered a windborne sky lantern because of the light’s orange colour and slow movement. The nonlinear path fits poorly but remains possible in this steep-sided valley, where very low-level winds often differ greatly from those higher up. Such altitude-dependent winds are almost impossible to model or predict. The distant stations at Lyon, Mâcon and Geneva reported different winds: strong southerlies at Lyon, weaker southerlies at Mâcon and southwesterlies at Geneva. These do not establish the wind at Matafelon. The photograph shows pink and blue, whereas the witness described orange. GEIPAN attributes the image’s shape more to nighttime photography and camera shake than to a faithful representation of the object. These uncertainties prevent a substantiated explanation. GEIPAN classifies the case C.