Mistaken as UFOs The Truth Revealed Jesse Ferrell / AccuWeather.com August 15, 2014
Jan 11, 2016
Mistaken as UFOs
The Truth Revealed
Jesse Ferrell / AccuWeather.com
August 15, 2014
Many Phenomena Are Not UFOs
• Clouds
• Reflection Phenomena
• Atmospheric Electricity
• Man-made Objects
Lenticular Clouds • Often formed by air flowing over mountains.
• Because these clouds continually reform as air flows through them, they appear to "hover" and have a saucer shape.
aerospaceweb.org
Lenticular Cloud Photos • “Jellyfish” Lenticular by Ron in Altoona,
2008
Lenticular Cloud Photos • Photo by Jesse in State College, 2010
More Lenticular Cloud Photos
Google/Public Domain
More Lenticular Cloud Photos
Google/PR NewsFoto
More Lenticular Cloud Photos
Google/Getty Images
Mothership Clouds
Facebook/WGAL/Matt Moore
Mothership Clouds. Extremely severe thunderstorms take on a saucerlike shape before they drop high winds, hail and tornadoes.
Photo in Harrisburg, PA by Matt Moore:
A Mothership Cloud in Tornado Alley
Google/Valentina Abinanti
Hole-Punch CloudsHole-punch clouds are formed when a jet (or jet vapor trail) goes through a deck of clouds, forcing them to “rain out.” Photo by Jesse in State College (2009)
More Hole-Punch Cloud Photos
Google/Keptelensig.Hu
More Hole-Punch Cloud Photos
YouTube/@thaitvnews
Lightning Sprites & Jets
Google/NOAA
Sprites and Jets occur miles above thunderstorms, but are rarely photographed.
Ball Lightning
Google/US Air Force Academy
Never photographed until recently in the lab. Orbs of light can slide down from power poles or out of electric outlets.
St. Elmos Fire
Google/Fly For Fun
Rarely photographed, electrical sparks on objects (shown here on a plane’s windshield).
Rocket & Missile Vapor Trails
Google/vietgiaitri.com
Noctilucent Clouds
AccuWeather.com/ Clauslr
Noctilucent clouds are rare, extremely high clouds that refract light at dusk when the Sun has already set, illuminating the sky with seemingly no light source.
Lens & Light Reflections
Google Maps / Google Earth
Every camera lens reflects the sun and indoor/outdoor lights. Here a reflection of the sun shows up on Google Maps “Street View”
Lens Reflections (2)
Google / Mike Wu
The orange lights below have been enlarged and proven mathematically to be lens reflections from lights on the ground:
Atmospheric Optics: Ice Halos
YouTube/Ken Rotberg
Iridescence on ice halo clouds can appear above thunderstorms; partial halos (circumhorizontal arcs) can appear as rainbows in the sky.
USAToday
Atmospheric Optics: Ice Halos
AccuWeather.com / JWWalter
Bright spots or rainbows on either side of the sun are called “Sun Dogs” and are caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere reflecting the sun’s light.
Atmospheric Optics: Light Pillars
AccuWeather.com / ervol57
Street lights reflecting off of ice crystals or ice fog can produce “Pillars” in the sky. This was taken in Pennsylvania in 2008:
Non-Rain Objects Falling from Sky
AccuWeather.com
Tornadoes can sometimes pick up objects and “rain” them down. Some examples are:
•FISH (Australia, 2010)
•FROGS (Missouri, 1873)
•COAL (England, 1983)
•Airplanes often shed ice from their wings which hit the ground and are called “cryometeors”
Man-Made Objects: Weather Balloons
Google/Kay Brooks
Man-Made Objects: Quadcopters
Flickr/Ars Electronica
Man-Made Objects: Chinese Lanterns
strangersintaiwan.files.wordpress.com
100,000,000,000 Earth-like planets in the Milky Way Galaxy
20,000,000,000,000,000 Earth-like planets in the Universe
I think Life is likely out there, but there’s no concrete evidence YET.
Is Life Out There?“NASA Earth-Like Planets Study”:
“A principle of economy, or succinctness used in problem-solving”
“Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Other, more complicated solutions may ultimately prove correct, but—in the absence of certainty—the fewer assumptions that are made, the better.”
Which is more likely:
-One of these many known flying objects was mistaken for a UFO?
OR
- An extraterrestrial life-form has made a long journey to appear in our skies but leave no evidence?
Occam’s Razor
Wild Estimate: 30,000 of them are probably atmospheric phenomena
Let’s say another 30,000 are known aircraft
Let’s assume another 9,999 are camera reflections
What if there is
JUST 1 THAT CAN’T BE EXPLAINED?
So there are 70,000 UFO reports per year…
Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather Meteorologist
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