Sighting in Paradou, September 4, 2021

Shortly after one in the morning, on the night between a Friday and a Saturday, a lone witness noticed a phenomenon in the sky that they could not explain. They photographed and filmed it. In the photograph the object looks stationary. In the video it moves back and forth across the sky, disappearing and then reappearing at intervals. The witness pointed out that the object's shape looked different in the photo and in the video. The phenomenon made no noise.

GEIPAN investigators were able to analyse both the photo and the video, so the case has good consistency even though there was only one witness. They concluded that the witness had very probably seen the light patch created by a ground-based projector (a skyrose type) hitting a fairly low layer of cloud. Several points support this: the circular shape, the white colour typical of such projectors, the lack of noise, and the regular sweeping movement. Weather data indicate an intermittent cloud layer at about 1,700 to 1,900 metres. Good to very good horizontal visibility explains why no beam could be seen between the ground and the clouds. A Friday-to-Saturday night fits the possible use of such a projector at a local party or event. Nightclubs were not yet allowed to reopen because of Covid-19 restrictions, so a private party is more likely, although it could not be confirmed. The difference in shape between photo and video comes from an optical artefact: in low light, the smartphone's automatic settings lengthen the exposure time, which stretches the patch, in fact circular, when it moves.

GEIPAN classified the case as A.