Documents / Official release
This case resolution from the Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is dated 14 October 2023. It covers a report from a military pilot on 26 January 2023 in the Eglin Air Force Base training range off Florida. The pilot tracked four objects on radar and photographed one of them, which appeared as a rounded cone at 16,000 feet. With moderate confidence, AARO concluded the object was very likely a lighter-than-air object such as a commercial lighting balloon. It found the aircraft's radar failure was coincidental.
UNCLASSIFIED 4 UNCLASSIFIED (U) Intelligence Assessment (U) AARO’s IC partner on this case assesses with high confidence that the object was not exhibiting anomalous characteristics based on the available data and its reconstruction of the event. Available data included the altitude, geocoordinates of the object, the aircraft viewing angle and heading, as well as the sun geometry at the time of the observation. • (U) Based on reconstruction of the event, to include the viewing angle of the EO/IR sensor that took the zoomed-in image, the sun would have illuminated the bottom hemisphere in a manner consistent with the IR image (see Figure 3). The orange-red color at the center of the bottom half of the object could be explained by the sun glint off the object as the pilot observed it, thus causing the appearance of the orange-red colors on the balloon. (U) Science & Technology Assessment (U) AARO’s S&T partner independently came to the same general conclusions based on the available data and its deconfliction of military and commercial radar tracks in the vicinity of the sighting. The partner assesses with high confidence that the object was not anomalous and very likely was some kind of balloon. • (U) The S&T partner assesses that the image is consistent with a Mylar balloon as viewed from above where the bottom is illuminated with light reflected from the clouds or the earth. This effect is known as “Earth shine.” • (U) The partner notes that many larger balloons have red-colored tether points around the circumference of the balloon which could account for the orange-red color the pilot reported observing near the center.018Page determined to be Unclassified Review by Chief of Staff, AARO IAW FY24 NDAA, Section 1841 (a)(1)(C) Date: 02/06/2025
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Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 7 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.