Sighting in Richecourt, November 6, 2020

A witness standing in their garden between 12:30 and 1:00 pm noticed, for about a minute, a half-moon-shaped phenomenon that was translucent, white and bright. It was very high in a clear sky and moved very slowly before it seemed to "evaporate". The witness had time to photograph it. Only one account of the sighting was collected.

The investigation found that what the witness saw and photographed was a high-altitude cloud, a cirrus uncinus. This type of cloud is not commonly seen, which probably led the witness to a very different interpretation. Three points support this analysis: the bright white colour, the half-moon or comma shape of a cloud as it dissipates, and the slow movement, carried by the wind at high altitude. The strong brightness the witness described was probably due to the sun, which always shines through these clouds, made up of sparse small ice crystals. What struck the witness as strange, the disappearance, is fully explained by a light to moderate wind producing the comma shape.

The case's consistency is good: although there was only one witness, the photographs could be used in the analysis. GEIPAN classified the case as A, a misidentification of a cloud.