RENTREE ATMOSPHERIQUE — NATIONAL (FR) 09.04.2015

On Thursday 9 April 2015 at about 07:10, numerous witnesses simultaneously observed the phenomenon across southwestern France (Foix, Montauban, Saint-Orens and elsewhere) and western France (La Chapelle-sur-Erdre and Plozevet), from Ariège to Finistère. Witnesses in the Spanish Pyrenees also came forward (see the summary table of accounts collected). This phenomenon is called a fireball, or ‘bolide’, an old term meaning ‘ball-shaped’. In French, the word is more often used for a very fast vehicle, referring to the speed of the observed phenomenon (see the general explanation in the fireball article). GEIPAN explains that, because of its brightness, most witnesses seeing such an event for the first time think it is very close, only a few kilometres away or less. In fact, the light is produced at altitudes between 80 and 20 km, allowing witnesses several hundred kilometres apart to see it simultaneously (see the report on a similar recent event, ‘A large fireball observed above Spanish Catalonia’). Given the paths described by witnesses, GEIPAN estimates that the 9 April 2015 fireball probably occurred over the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 100 km offshore; this is a very rough estimate. Meteoroid fragments measuring a few millimetres to centimetres most probably fell into the Atlantic. GEIPAN classifies the case A: a fireball produced by a meteoroid entering the atmosphere. Further accounts appear on Ciel des hommes, Actucity, France bleu and La Dépèche, the latter with an archive image. A video is also available on Dailymotion.