Home › Archive › AARO

AARO-DOD_111294469 — PR-010, UAP Report Resolved as a Balloon, Europe 2022

File
AARO-DOD_111294469
Agency
AARO / DVIDS
Incident date
2022
Location
Europe
File type
VIDEO
Length
7:56

The United States European Command submitted a report of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) consisting of seven minutes and fifty-six seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2022.

AARO assesses, with high confidence, that the object depicted in the video is almost certainly (≥95% likelihood) a balloon. AARO bases its assessment on the object’s strong morphological consistency with other resolved imagery featuring balloons and the object’s performance characteristics strongly aligning with those of lighter-than-air objects, e.g., drifting at wind speed and direction.

Key moments

AI-generated from video frames · may be inaccurate

  • 0:00 Infrared sensor view over layers of bright cloud against darker sky. A small white spot wanders close to the crosshair.
  • 0:55 The cloud thins to scattered puffs; the white spot keeps drifting around the crosshair, often below or left of it.
  • 2:47 The picture flashes white, then flat grey.
  • 2:48 Closer view of plain grey sky with faint vertical stripes; the spot, larger now, moves between above the crosshair and its upper right.
  • 3:06 After a dark flicker the wider view returns with scattered cloud; the spot moves around below and beside the crosshair.
  • 3:23 A square box appears on the crosshair while the spot stays off to one side, passing near small clouds.
  • 4:06 The picture flashes white, then blocky grey.
  • 4:06 A field of large rounded clouds fills the view; the spot moves among them near the crosshair.
  • 5:05 The cloud clears to plain grey, then faint ground patches and lines appear below; the spot stays near the crosshair.
  • 7:25 Two quick white flashes; between them a wider view with a brighter band across the top.
  • 7:31 Closer view of the ground: the spot, larger, moves from left of the crosshair to the upper right and shows bright near the top.

Open original file · DVIDS page

TL;DR

2022: the year Europe got a surprise birthday balloon from the U.S.

  • PR-010 video, AARO, 2022, Europe, 7:56 length, infrared sensor on U.S. platform.
  • Shows multiple small bright spots drifting at wind speed, matching balloon behavior.
  • AARO concluded with ≥95% confidence the object is almost certainly a balloon.

Previous: AARO-DOD_111217027 — PR-003, Unresolved UAP Report, Africa 2023 · Next: AARO-DOD_111300649 — PR-004, UAP Report Resolved as a Balloon, Europe 2022

Same topic: title & summary match

Same location: Europe

Same period: 2022

Same agency: AARO