A professional website (http://www.ipaco.fr/page24.html ) has recently been launched designed to present a state-of-the-art stand point in the field of extracting objective information from digital still or video imagery in which a (so far) non-identified object or phenomenon appears. It also offers for sale user licenses of the IPACO software, which has been specifically developed for that task, as well as offering a resident expert service to produce imagery analysis reports on demand.

This IPACO is a very welcome expertise as the UAP research the photographic domain includes many hoaxes and numerous types of possible mistakes and unintentional wrong moves. The IPACO founders state that: ”The analysis will be conducted quite objectively and without any preconceived ideas, its conclusion consisting either of an explanation (probable or certain) duly proven, or of a statement of non-identification with, in that case, a synthesis of the characteristic elements of the recorded phenomenon, qualitative and quantitative, that may have been recorded. It is possible, with experience, to process many files following relatively standard procedures, whereas a few others sometimes justify far more extensive (and consequently more expensive) investigations. That is why we propose two service levels:

Standard expert analysis: the file is analyzed, for a fixed lump sum, with the output consisting of a Standard analysis report which presents the conclusions, together with – if justified – a quotation for an extensive analysis. Extensive expert analysis: after the standard expert analysis, more specialized investigations are conducted, according to the presented and accepted quotation, and they are made concrete through an Extensive analysis report. Each Analysis report is delivered in the form of a PDF file, such as those presented in our sample galleries…”

One of the IPACO founders is François Louange, who collaborates as a consultant on photo analysis, as well as on detection projects, with GEPAN, SEPRA and GEIPAN. He has contractually produced a dozen technical reports for CNES.

The IPACO software, derived from a long experience in the field of military intelligence, aims to provide the analyst in ufology with a user-friendly and easy-to-use working environment, thanks to which he may concentrate on the very object of his analysis, with permanent access to a toolkit that fits most investigation scenarios. The analysis work is conducted in a highly interactive environment, but it remains always possible to save and edit results, in the form of text reports and images, processed and completed by graphics. However, certain particular cases may still require the use of other software tools, which are highly specialized in one or other specific domain.

The ongoing evolution of the IPACO software aims at satisfying both maintenance requirements (correction of residual errors, improvement of existing functions), and wishes expressed by users for adding new tools. IPACO is presently operational in 2 languages (French and American English), but extension to other languages has been anticipated in the software architecture, which will possibly be made concrete through particular cooperations to be set up. The 3 external databases (UFOCAT, IFOCAT and CamCAT), as well as handling of data models, referred to in the IPACO Users’ guide, are not implemented yet, because their detailed specifications will depend on feedback from the IPACO software’s use.

Analysis methodology (from a 2008 CNES GEIPAN document: APN & PAN – Méthodologie d’analyse des photos numériques de PAN), details and demonstration of the IPACO software, sample galleries of explained and unexplained documents (e.g.: http://www.ipaco.fr/EN_IFO_B_banne_120614.pdf), and contact details can be found at:

http://www.ipaco.fr/page24.html

For over three hours in late 1968, numerous ground witnesses observed an unconventional aerial object maneuvering over the [Minuteman] ICBM missile fields surrounding Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.  During this time, an unidentified object paced a B-52 and was recorded on radar.  Later, the crew of the B-52 overflew and observed a large glowing object on or near the ground.

 
A comprehensive historical study, including primary documentation and interview transcripts has been completed in June 2011  by the Sign Historical Group and Thomas Tulien. This detailed study provides readers with an opportunity to examine all the available evidence of the October 1968 Minot Air Force Base event, and therefore determine for oneself whether it is convincing.

The study can be consulted at: http://minotb52ufo.com/index.php

CNES/GEIPAN (GROUPE D’ ETUDE ET D’INFORMATION DES PHENOMENES AEROSPATIAUX NON IDENTIFIES) has made available yesterday on its website a CSV file of its database (limited to the cases published so far on line:1566 out of +/-2200) and some new statistics representing identified cases from 2007 to 2012 (393 cases).

It should be stressed that it is the first time that a UAP statistical file is made available by a government.

Whether the granularity and quality of the information is sufficient for a sound analysis by researchers will need to be assessed.

The following CSV file can be downloaded from: http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/index.php?id=202:

Export_etudedecas

Three posters presented during the last EGU 2012 assembly, by the Norwegian/Italian/French scientists studying the Hessdalen Phenomena (ST3 – Solar-Terrestrial Sciences – Open session on the ionosphere and thermosphere), reflecting their activities’ progress.

1. Unknown radio emission at about 3 MHz recorded in Norway

1.1 Abstract: EGU2012-5186

1.2 Poster:Unknown radio emission at about 3 MHz

2. Different states of the transient luminous phenomena in Hessdalen valley, Norway.

2.1. Abstract: EGU2012-12098-3

2.2 Poster:Different states of the transient luminous phenomena

3. Existence of electric/magnetic signals related to unknown luminous lights observed in Hessdalen valley (Norway)?

3.1. Abstract:EGU2012-5967-1

3.2 Poster: Existence of electric, magnetic signals

TWAN mystery page is returned with a new puzzle!
What is the identity of this mysterious changing ray of light appeared in the night sky of northern Canada (Sep. 23, 2011)? A UFO?! Read all about it, see a timelapse motion of the scene, and write your comment or answer on http://twanight.org/mystery (Thanks to Babak A. Tafreshi !)

Last May, I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on GEIPAN, the official French bureau (part of the CNES, the French space agency, ” Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales”) in charge of investigating UFO sightings on the French territory (since 1977). I have prepared a small document in support of the presentation given by Xavier Passot, the current head of GEIPAN.

This document is divided into four parts: The first one provides a small introduction to the UAP topic and on the French background; the second one gives further details on the GEIPAN itself; the third one is the presentation (slides) that has been shown and the the fourth one is an interview of Xavier Passot.

Comments from readers always welcome…

Conference GEIPAN 2012_part1

Conference GEIPAN 2012_part2

Conference GEIPAN 2012_part3

Conference GEIPAN 2012_part4

Conference GEIPAN 2012_part5

Babak A. Tafreshi (TWAN, The World at night) has posted on the UAP Observations Reporting Scheme’s Facebook page a very nice illustration regarding different examples of unusual night phenomena captured on pictures around the world. Spectacular sightings but explained !
Babak A. Tafreshi: ” The bizarre cloud of 2012 June 7 in the night sky above the Middle East amazed people and made a lot of news. For all the fans of UFOs, unfortunately I have to say these are known phenomena related to launch of rockets, nothing to do with alien spaceships! Rockets that launch to the space often create these clouds in stunning forms and appear over a large area, sometimes because of failure in the launch or dumping out the extra fuel that creates the cloud. This image illustrates some of rocket-related bizarre clouds that appeared around the world in the recent years. Its very strange sighting when you see it first time, like my experience in 2007: www.twanight.org?ID=3002823

Reports of such sighting often appears on Spaceweather website. Here is one after the mysterious spiral-like cloud over northern Scandinavia in 2009 which turns out to be a failure missle rocket test from a Russian submarine: www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=10&month=12&year=2009 More about it: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/12/09/awesomely-bizarre-light-show-freaks-out-norway/
The recent cloud over the Middle East was also related to a Russian rocket (now confirmed): www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/middle-east-ufo-video_n_1579251.html About it in Persian: http://pourianazemi.com/ and http://khabaronline.ir/detail/219097/science/astronomy
These videos very well documented how these clouds are created by rockets: http://youtu.be/EQzja1WpZPc
http://youtu.be/Zx8i5EfmYU4
http://youtu.be/9IFLH8GzQh4
http://youtu.be/OkT3I6RDPkw
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8405481.stm
این ابرهای مرموز در آسمان زمین چه هستند؟ آیا بیگانکان فضایی به ملاقات ما آمده‌اند؟! متاسفانه (یا شاید خوشبختانه) خیر! ابر مرموزی که در شب 18 خرداد در آسمان شب ایران و کشورهای خاورمیانه دیده شد مثل نمونه‌های دیگری که در این تصویر کنارهم گذاشته‌ام حاصل پرتاب موشک‌ها به فضاست. آنها گاهی بر اثر خطا در مراحل پرتاب و گاهی نیز در فرایند خروج سوخت اضافه از موشک در ارتفاعات بالا به وجود می‌آیند. وقتی در فضای بالای جو زمین رخ دهد با بازتاب نور خورشید از ابر در حال انبساط منطقه وسیعی روی زمین آن را می‌بینند. ابر اخیر نیز حاصل پرتاب موشکی از روسیه بود، حتی عجیب‌تر از آن در سال 2009 در شمال اسکاندیناوی با پرتاب موشک روسی دیگری دیده شد. برای اطلاعات بیشتر لینک‌های زیر حتما ببینید، ویدئوهای انتخاب شده نشان می‌دهند چگونه این ابرها در پی پرتاب یک موشک شکل می‌گیرند”

Spanish (courtesy of Sergio) and Italian (courtesy of Paolo) questionnaires added under the “Reporting blog” .  Now Just Arabic and Chinese (Mandarin) missing for completing the official languages of the United Nations.

Also, a Blog entry about ATC (Air Traffic Control) Spanish sightings…

Today I came across an interesting headline: Unidentified Flying Object In Denver Nearly Takes Out Private Jet (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/denver-ufo-near-miss-jet_n_1521934.html). Hopefully we will know in the next days the nature of the mysterious intruder…
But it reminded me also about last November’s message from an Air traffic controller report in Spain. Indeed there has been some interesting info in the past November about UAP in Spain. Former air traffic controller spokesman, Cesar Cabo, commented on twitter  about  unexplained objects appeared in the radar screens of three different airline aircrafts. That created some media movement about the fact, and also it brought attention about previous cases (Thanks to my friend Sergio for the lead and the translation, http://cesarcabo.blogspot.com/2011/10/ovnis-haberlos-haylos.html?spref=tw).

Translation: UFOs, existing (or not), they do!

A few weeks ago, following the uproar caused by one of my tweets, I wrote an article explaining a story in the control centre of Madrid where three planes had asked [the control tower] about unidentified object on their radar screens.

We will never know what that was, there are many hypotheses and imagination is free and creative, however, that case arouse my curiosity to find out whether or not similar cases abound. The answer is clearly yes, there are many examples hard to explain in a pure rational way. After the initial buzz on Twitter, I got two requests for radio interviews and hundreds of comments on the blog from different countries. Apparently, and to my utter surprise, I had opened a sort of Pandora’s box on UFOs. I never imagined that so many people were interested on this subject, which seemed to have run out of steam after being very fashionable in the 70′s.

My research among my colleagues surprised me; personally I did not have any experience of sightings and it is something that it is not commented at work. I asked about thirty people collecting more than a dozen peculiar stories.

Among all, I would highlight the following:

Seville 1981: A British plane [pilot] communicates with the controller staff. Very scare he indicates that one “light” constantly pursues him. There was no evidence of any other traffic in the area.

Las Palmas 1983: The controller observes in its radar an object following a commercial airliner. Asking the pilot if it sees something, it responded negatively. Throughout the approach to the airport of Las Palmas the unidentified object escorts the aircraft keeping five miles ahead, reaching the location of the radar antenna the signal fades. On the vertical of the radar antenna is a blind area, and therefore cannot be seen on the screen whether or not any object.

Barcelona early 80′s: Three commercial aircraft reported a sighting in a short space of time and in different areas. One of them, an airlift of a Spanish company, observes a light that gets in its way. Another, on its way to Palma, notices colour lights that follow in its path. A third, British, sees in the distance a strange light in the air.
The controller who lived the experience told me that he did not pay much attention to the first report, but when he received the other two, so consecutive, he noticed that something strange was flying through the sky that night.

Canary 1995: A DC8 cargo, flying from Las Palmas to Madrid, reported lights that followed its path. The controller, as usual, sees nothing in his radar screen. The lights are ahead of the plane, crossing its path from left to right constantly. The pilot stoically “suffers” the sighting until shortly before leaving the airspace of the Canary Islands this is gone.

Palma de Mallorca 1996/97: Early afternoon, clear day. Several flights to Palma reported to Control seeing a silver sphere landed on the island. It was spotted from different routes to the island.

The 90s:
Pamplona, fly military traffic observes a light sphere on the horizon, suddenly, it moves from east to west at a speed of over 5000 kilometres per hour and it is fixed again. This light defies the laws of physics in terms of speed and ballistics.

Madrid. A military plane going back to the Torrejon air base wants to descend to its approach and requests information on the lights of a plane that is reflected in its cabin, just below the flight level. Air Control informs that the only traffic that may affect it, it is below, but at 15000 feet, about 5km. The pilot, experienced in many military exercises, refused to descend given that the lights are just below and he does not descend until the plane flying en route in a lower level confirms that maintains an altitude of 15000 feet less.

Toledo. A British plane flying from the UK Canary Control calls the control tower to tell frightened that there is a blinding light that blinds him. The light completely fills the cockpit and takes a few seconds to disappear. Other planes flying over the area also reported seeing a peculiar light.

Ibiza. The airport is closing. All workers have already left and there is only the on-duty controller to close the control tower. Suddenly, he notices a strange shadow falls upon the beacon tower further darkening the night. Fearfully, timidly peeks out the window and sees the shadow disappears like lightning and the night recovers it usual luminosity.

I imagine there are hundreds of stories still to discover, for both control and the pilots, commercial and military, and how it only takes the trouble to ask and listen to people tell their experiences.
In my research with my colleagues, I was surprised with the ease they showed to comment their anecdotes, without trying to speculate what could be what the pilots and they had seen. In Air Traffic Control, we do not have a protocol that requires us to write this kind of situation, so they are absorbed into the anecdotes of everyday life, discussed with colleagues and stored in memory shortly thereafter.
It is clear that in the Spanish airspace, the more I know because of my job, there are more things that the ones that transcend, phenomena difficult to explain to our minds “supposedly” rational.
Not because of this we need to fell into alarmism, we can continue flying calm. The Spanish air traffic control system is in the hands of 2000 professionals who, despite everything, professionally serve millions of passengers a year. UFOs maybe not, but you are are always under our control.

 As this week I will atttend the EGU (European Geosciences Union annual conference)  in Vienna and meet the Hessdalen Norwegian researchers, I thought that it was the perfect time to post this interview of Erling Strand. (all articles’ photos are courtesy of Project Hessdalen, Erling Strand and Bjorn Gitle Hauge)

The Hessdalen Phenomena (HP) are transient luminous phenomena which is observed in the low atmosphere over the Hessdalen valley in Norway. The phenomenon, still unexplained, appears like a glowing light ball with dimensions ranging from decimeters up to 30 meters. Since the mid of 1980’s, camera  observations and data measurements have given qualitative and quantitative observations which complement the observations reported by Hessdalen valley inhabitants. Ass. Professor Erling Strand works at the Østfold University College (Norway) as a teacher in the Department of Information Technology. He has a master degree in electrical engineer from the University of Trondheim and studied physical electronics and telecommunications. He is one of the founders of what is called “Project Hessdalen” (HP) (Website:http://www.hessdalen.org/), a project that has been dedicated to studying this unexplained phenomena. In addition, Erling is also the European representative of the Society for Scientific Exploration. Having had the pleasure to meet him recently (and I will see him this week at the 2012 European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, I took the opportunity to ask him the latest HP news:

1/ Some scientists remain skeptical about the existence and significance of the HP phenomena. What do you reply to them? There are very few of such scientists left. There have been so much documentation of the phenomena during the years, so I tell them to be more updated.

2/ You participated for the first time last April to an European Geosciences Union General Assembly. Could you tell if this proved to be beneficial and what kind of feedback you received? I haven’t seen any directly beneficial so far, but in general it is important to inform people at the Geosciences Union about the phenomena. Journalists do contact me often. I don’t ask the journalists where they got the info from. Lately it could have been due to my participation on the EGU, – but that is just speculations.

3/ 27 years after the first field investigation in Hessdalen (http://www.hessdalen.org/reports/hpreport84.shtml), what has been learnt on the Hessdalen Phenomena? It is difficult to say this in a short term. We know that there are many different types of the phenomena, and they are capture on radar. – An answer on your question could be part in a book.

4/ Do you have any information on the possible frequency of apparition of the UP phenomena; i.e. what were the declared sightings records of the last five years? And is the Hessdalen Valley the only location in Norway where this kind of phenomena is reported? The data of observations the last 5 year is no good. The only good data source is the amount of observations done during the Science Camp’s, which takes place during one week, each year. There have been observations on all these Science Camp.

5/ Beside the three main types of HP (i.e. white or blue flashed; big yellow lights, several lights together); could you tell us more about the others kinds of sightings that are reported? Could provide a recent testimony for illustrating this? These three different types consists each of many different types of lights. For instance “big yellow light”, can have many different shapes, lifetime, moving behavior etc. There are also some types which does not fit into any of these “big” boxes. There are daylight observations, which are not a light. But there are very few of such sightings. It can be different solutions to all of these types of phenomena.

6/ Last year collaboration was initiated with the GEIPAN and some French research institutes, could you update us on the current status of this partnership and if some results, data have been obtained from the new equipments installed (electric field and infrasound)? The French institutes have installed instruments in Hessdalen, which continuous record data. They measure electrical and magnetic fields. Whenever observations are done in Hessdalen, it is possible to find out if there have been any unusual magnetic or electrical recordings. The data from these instruments need to be collected manually. They are not on the internet.

7/ In order to acquire more data on the HP and come up with a final theory and explanation, what do you think would need to be done? What instruments would be needed and what kind of logistic would be ideal? If founding had been present, we could find a solution. There are no people working full time on this now. I would build logistics on the data, with a main database. There should be better mapping of different physical properties in the Hessdalen valley. There should have been camera recordings in the IR, UV and the visual. A good radar system. Better reporting system. More cameras, so 3D mapping of the phenomena could have been done.

8/ In 2009 Billionaire Robert Bigelow made a significant donation to the American Ufological association MUFON for supporting a rapid response team that would quickly reach the destination of a high-level UFO event. In the case of the Hessdalen Phenomena, how can you persuade some potential investors to provide some funding or others relevant resources? Why is it important to study the HP? Finding the solution of the HP will give new info about our world. It could be groundbreaking knowledge, because so far the HP does not seems to fit into a known part of our world. Such possible groundbreaking news about our world is important. How important is difficult to say before we know it. Could there be a new energy source? Could this energy source be used so that there will be no need for any fossil fuels? Or maybe even more important info could be achieved.

9/ In a recent interview, you have stated that “…you have had several daytime observations, where you have seen flying discs, etc…”Even if not related to the HP, could you please provide more details on such sightings? I have had only three daytime observations, so the word “several” is wrong. I have however seen several unexplainable “things”, – such which goes into another category than HP or ufo. Two of those three observations was a flying disc. The third was a “black hole”. I did not get the impression that I was looking onto a black object, it was more like a hole into something completely black. This “black hole” changed size all the time.

Thanks Erling for this interview and you success with your Project Hessdalen