The EGU General Assembly 2013 (7-12 April 2013, Vienna, Austria) was again a great success with 4,684 oral, 8,207 poster, and, for the very first time, 452 PICO presentations. 448 unique scientific sessions together with 96 Poster Summaries & Discussions as well as 143 side events created an interesting programme. At the conference 11,167 scientists from 95 countries participated, of which 28% were students, 15,000 copies of EGU Today distributed, keen media presence and reporting, and thousands of visits to the webstreams as well as to the EGU blog GEOLOG.

Similarly to last year, the scientists studying the Hessdalen phenomena attended the event, participating to a Poster session (abstract + poster here attached). These scientists can be contacted through the quoted emails.

EGU2013-12725 abstract

EGU2013 Poster Hessdalen

On the 11th of January 2013, a series of meetings took place in Paris between the American Mutual UFO Network (MUFON, David MacDonald), the French Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Study Group (GEIPAN, Xavier Passot) and various European Ufologists. These meetings were organised by John Tomlinson, a French MUFON Regional Director, and Jacky Kozan, one of the founders of the Academy of Ufology.

The overall goal of the MUFON coming to Paris was to set the basis of an international scientific cooperation between MUFON and different European UAP organisations. One of the first priorities was to define some cooperation between the MUFON and the GEIPAN, starting with the finalization of a memorandum of understanding regarding guidelines for sighting cases occured in France and collected by MUFON. Besides various individual meetings held during the day between the participants, a special MUFON presentation was organized on Saturday evening by Guy Loterre (OVNI-Paris) and Jacky Kozan in Paris-La Defense.

My summary notes of this event are attached here below:

2013 MUFON Paris meeting_notes

A new book has been published (in German) this month featuring my paper ” The Lure of Local SETI: 50 Years of Field Experiments”, a document that I had prepared for the First IAA Symposium on Searching for Life Signatures (UNESCO/Paris – September 2008).

A very interesting book, a short introduction here:

Michael Schetsche, Andreas Anton (Eds.

To date UFOs have remained a mystery. Their appearance usually occurs unexpected and is always unpredictable. Probably this is why they have been hidden from academic sight for so long.

UFOs are a fantastic phenomenon with a broad range of interpretation. It can raise inconvenient questions – it may even appear as a threat to scientific certainty itself. For most observers, it will ultimately stay a rather unreal reality.

Are UFOs more than a cultural neomyth? Is it nothing but hard to explain yet natural phenomena – or is it a portent of extraterrestrial civilizations after all?

UFOs are and remain a challenge to our thinking. After 65 years of helplessness it appears to be time for a new beginning.

The new paradigm of reflexive UFO research claims: The only way to understand this contradictory phenomenon is through the interaction of natural and cultural sciences. This requires openness to theory and empirical willingness to cooperate on both sides.

Only a natural and cultural scientifically informed approach to UFO research will have a chance to find a way into academic science: beyond all previous prohibition of thought.

The Italian researchers have came up last month with a new theory for explaining the Hessdalen Phenomenon. It suggests that the local characteristics of the valley lead to the production of cold plasmas and/or ion bubbles, by means of chemical effects and thanks to the self-consistency due to the polar properties of water.

However, the document states that this paper does not aim to provide a solution to the origin of the Hessdalen Phenomenon and that ”…to better investigate this working hypothesis, future campaigns will have to focus on the acquisition of wider and higher‐resolution fully calibrated spectra, exploiting the professional instrumentation usually employed in astrophysical observations…”

The English paper can be downloaded from the Italian Committee Project’s website:

‘HESSDALEN: a perfect “natural battery”

Abstract: After 12 years of thorough research, we believe we added an important element to the comprehension of the mysterious phenomenon. The valley shows electrical anomalies, Moreover it has peculiar geological and mineral characteristics. Such features have helped us to put forward a working hypothesis on what we here call “natural battery”, an electrochemical That model could be tested conceiving proper experiments and field measurements.

http://www.itacomm.net/PH/2013_Monari_et-al-en.pdf

Some information regarding the last IAA Symposium on Searching for Life Signatures which took place last September in the city state of San Marino. One of the speaker, my friend Claudio Flores Martinez, kindly accepted to produced some notes about this conference, including a summary of the few UAP related issues that were discussed. In addition, he provided the contents of his presentation on ”’The Selfish Biocosm Hypothesis in the light of Simulation Theory”.

Certainly a fascinating and far-stretching concept ” that could find a place in Ufology : Extract: ” What’s even weirder is that we might be in a virtual reality environment that is being run by one of these technologically superior beings or even by our own descendants (see Nick Bostrom’s “simulation argument”). Maybe ETIs in our universe are being simulated just like we are by a cosmic hyper-mind or, equally mindboggling, UFO sightings can be attributed to some kind of “glitch” in the artificial construct around us. That could explain the weirdness of many sightings and, furthermore, accounts for the apparent violations of physical laws observed during encounters of all degrees…”

Documents:
4th IAA Symposium on Searching for Life Signatures

In relation to the Norwegian’s spiral sighting (December 9. 2009) and others past UAP sightings, two Russian scientific papers explaining the physics behind such optical phenomena.

Rockets launches and associated tracks left by expended rockets plumes moving through the sky are often responsible for UAP mis-identifications (e.g. Norway 2009, Petrozavodsk 1977).  Indeed most spectacular bursts of luminosity are due to special modes of rockets engine’s operations, e.g. separation of rocket stages or shutdown of solid fuel rocket engines.

Two recent Russian scientific papers from Dr S. Chernouss (past member of the Setka(net) past UFO projects of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Ministry of Defense), Dr Y. Platov and others, describe examples of ”man-made” aurora and discuss their common features, appearances, visual properties and physical mechanisms. Moreover, the authors underline the fact that dynamics of luminous clouds connected with the exhaust product interaction with components of the upper atmosphere can be efficiently used as a method of active experiments in near-Earth space, at a low price.

References:

Optical phenomena associated with the launch of a ballistic missile  BULAVA” December 9, 2009.

http://pgia.ru:81/seminar/archive/2010/6_atmosphere/06-07_Platov.pdf

Optical Phenomena due to Rocket Exhaust Products in the Atmosphere.

http://helion-ltd.ru/opti-phenomena-rocket-exh/

On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the Heaven’s gate group who had committed suicide in order to reach what they believed was an alien space craft following the Comet Hale–Bopp, which was at its brightest.  Heaven’s gate was an American UFO religion based in San Diego, California.

Such situation should never occur again.

Dec. 21, 2012, won’t be the end of the world (it will just be another winter solstice).

This is the NASA Sciencecast regarding this hoax, myth:

NASA FAQ: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

Written by Dominique F. Weinstein (NARCAP International Technical Specialist and  France  GEIPAN/CNES expert), this 2012 report presents the findings of a comprehensive review of 600 cases, over a period of sixty-four years in which pilots have reported the presence of one or more unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) during flight.

The main purpose of this report is to show that these phenomena occur, that they could have an impact on flight safety and that they deserve a more in-depth scientific study.

narcap_IR-4_DWeinstein_NEW_3-21-12

The GEIPAN has published on-line a synthesis of the audit report conducted in 2001 on the activities of SEPRA, the service which preceded GEIPAN and succeeded GEPAN. This report clearly highlights the expectations of French society vis-à-vis a service in charge of studying UFOs and defines the mission of such organisation. It was on the recommendations of this report that GEIPAN was created in 2005, with its new mission of information to the general public. This is an important document that allows to understand the role of GEIPAN in French society.

Audit_SEPRA_synthese_web

In the summer 2012, the National Geographic Channel assembled a team of trained investigators to visit several sites where UFOs allegedly have been sighted. The Channel aired the results of its investigation in its program ”Chasing UFOs”.  The team used an instrument that combines advanced imaging with high-accuracy surveying capabilities (Topcon’s IS-3 imaging station) in attempting to unearth new evidence in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.

As mentioned in the attached illustrated article: ”The IS-3 basically combines the power, accuracy and speed of a total station with the auto-scanning capabilities of a laser scanner. It features dual digital imaging cameras that show a real-time color ~on the touch LCD display. A grid feature locks preset points to their exact position on the image, even when the instrument is rotated. The instrument has the longest scanning range in the industry at up to 6,500 feet_ It provides industry-best accuracy, automatic scanning speed and on-board features designed to provide quicker scanning definition, faster image collection and real-time preview of scanned data. It can utilize Topcon ImageMastcr software that produces “photography with dimension,” an alternative to laser scanning. The IS-3 has WLAN capability and can be controlled remotely”.

The on-line article provides interesting information how this IS-3 modern tool has been used on different sites for finding physical evidence.

Source: location of object at predicted reentry time

Article with pictures: ChasingUFOs_Vol9No9