LEGUEVIN (31) 27.11.2015

On 27 November 2015 between 10:30 and 11:00, a witness at home observed and filmed several moving sky objects. Only 1 account was collected. Apart from 1 sphere, GEIPAN identifies the UAPs as aircraft: some high with white contrails, others much lower without trails after taking off from Blagnac (see the 2 videos). Flightradar shows 2 aircraft travelling oppositely, the low one north to south and the other south to north, matching a video and the account. Their apparently elongated, wingless appearance is familiar for low aircraft in grazing sunlight, as at 10:30 in November. The sphere is probably a recreational balloon. Its angular size is around 0.5 tenths of a degree, or 0.05°, estimated against remaining leaves a few centimetres across on a tree 30 m from the camera. The same tree gives elevation of 15–20°. It could be a toy balloon very low down or a solar thermal balloon several metres across, a few kilometres away at an altitude up to 1 or 3 km (see the solar-balloon examples). GEIPAN favours a thermal balloon because the west-to-east surface wind at Blagnac poorly fits the strong north-to-south component, whereas upper winds were north to south. Wind reversal with altitude may also explain the change of path at the end of the sphere video, described as an arc of a circle: the balloon could have been near the reversal level of about 1 km. The reconstruction document covers aircraft paths, viewing geometry, the sphere video and surface and upper winds. Considering only the sphere, the other UAPs being aircraft, GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable thermal-balloon observation.