Watch & Report a UFO Sighting

Interactive map of 18,116 worldwide cases, top 5 most credible French cases, most reported shapes, geographic hot-spots and the official reporting procedure via GEIPAN, NUFORC and AARO. Vigi-Sky aggregates half a century of data and adds a Claude AI analysis layer to help you understand — without dogma — what you saw in the sky.

What is a UFO / UAP?

A UFO — Unidentified Flying Object — refers to any aerial event whose origin cannot be immediately determined. The term, popularised in 1953 by the US Air Force, is still the most widely used by the general public, but modern scientific terminology now prefers UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, more recently Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon in the 2022 Pentagon doctrine). This shift is not cosmetic: it acknowledges that these phenomena include flying objects, but also underwater observations (USOs) and unexplained atmospheric events.

France was one of the very first countries to institutionalise the scientific study of UFOs. In 1977, the CNES space agency created GEPAN (Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena), renamed GEIPAN in 2005. This office, based in Toulouse, collects reports forwarded by national gendarmerie, civil aviation, the air force and private citizens, and analyses them through a standardised procedure. Each case is filed in one of four classes: A (perfectly identified), B (probable identification), C (insufficiently documented), D (unexplained after full investigation).

The proportion of class D cases is the most telling indicator: of the 3,200 cases archived since 1977, around 28% resist any conventional explanation after thorough enquiry. This figure is remarkably stable in international statistics: the US NUFORC database reports 25-30% unexplained, and the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) cites 2-5% of genuinely anomalous cases after rigorous filtering.

At an international level, the context has shifted dramatically between 2017 and 2024. The declassified US Navy Tic Tac, Gimbal and GoFast videos, followed by the public Congressional hearings of 2023 and 2024, took the topic out of folklore and onto the aerospace security agenda. France is following this trend: since 2023, the French Air and Space Force has had an internal reporting protocol, and several MPs requested a parliamentary mission on the topic in 2024.

This new framework drives a professionalisation of citizen reporting. Where in the 1980s-1990s an isolated testimony was enough, the modern standard requires structured data: precise geolocation, EXIF-rich video, cross-referencing with satellites, atmospheric reentries and Starlink trajectories. This is precisely Vigi-Sky's mission — to democratise this analytical toolkit for everyone.

How to report a UFO: the full protocol

A scientifically usable report relies on three pillars: collect the right data quickly, send it through the right channel, preserve the material evidence. Here is the complete procedure, applicable in less than thirty minutes after the sighting.

Step 1 — Time and location data

Immediately note the full date, the UTC AND local time (timezone confusion is the most common mistake), the total duration of the observation, and your exact position. Your phone's GPS coordinates (settings, location) are the gold standard reference: a decimal point is worth all the "near to" descriptions in the world. Add the azimuth of appearance and disappearance of the object (in degrees from North or as a cardinal point), and its approximate elevation above the horizon (10°, 30°, 60°, zenith).

Step 2 — Physical and behavioural description

Describe the shape precisely: sphere, disk, triangle, cigar, ovoid, multiple independent lights? The dominant colour (and its variations over time), the apparent size compared to a familiar object (full moon = 0.5°, star = point), the trajectory (linear, curved, zigzag, hovering followed by sudden acceleration, 90° turn), the presence of any sound (silence is itself a meaningful data point), and the weather context.

Step 3 — Capturing and preserving evidence

If you film or photograph, never crop the original file. EXIF metadata (time, GPS, device model, focal length, exposure) is essential for authentication. Make a backup copy on cloud immediately with timestamp. If the observation includes ground signs (circle, burnt grass, traces), photograph the area from multiple angles before any handling, and report it to the local police for an official record.

Step 4 — Witnesses and interference

Note the identity (with consent) and contact details of other witnesses, while avoiding narrative contamination — each witness should describe independently before comparison. Document any electronic interference observed: car engine stalling, smartphone shutting down, TV static, watch stopping. These quantitative data points carry strong analytical value.

Step 5 — Submission to official channels

In France, the reference channel is GEIPAN at geipan.fr. Their online form structures the report along CNES instruction criteria. In the United States, the primary citizen channels are NUFORC and MUFON. For defense-related cases involving military assets, the US Pentagon has established AARO. As a complement, Vigi-Sky offers a reporting form via its Sightings module: your case is immediately geolocated on the worldwide map and submitted to Claude AI analysis to cross-reference ISS, Starlink, weather and commercial air traffic at the given moment.

The interactive map of 18,116 worldwide cases

Vigi-Sky aggregates one of the most complete geolocated UFO databases on the web: 18,116 cases from NUFORC (US), MUFON (international), GEIPAN (France), and direct citizen reports. The worldwide map, accessible from the homepage in the World UFO Map section, allows interactive exploration by time, geography and shape.

The geographic distribution reveals major asymmetries that tell us as much about the phenomenon as about reporting culture:

• North America — 62% of the total, dominated by the US (10,850 cases) with concentrations in Arizona, California, Florida and the Pacific Northwest.
• Europe — 19%, around 3,440 cases. France accounts for 17% of European cases, behind the UK (24%) and ahead of Germany (14%).
• South America — 8%, dominated by Brazil (Varginha 1996, Itaipu Wave) and Chile.
• Asia — 6%, with significant historical under-reporting due to administrative silence cultures.
• Oceania + Africa + others — 5%.

The filters available on the Vigi-Sky map allow targeting by decade (1947-1959, 1960s, 1970s, ..., 2020s), by shape (lights, disk, triangle, cigar, other), by observation duration (instant, < 1 min, 1-10 min, > 10 min) and by credibility (single witness, multi-witness, photo/video, physical traces, radar). The latter is useful when consulting only multi-source corroborated cases.

The UFO Near Me module uses the same database in local mode: enter your city or allow geolocation, and the map shows cases within an adjustable 5 to 200 km radius, with date, shape and summary. It is one of the most consulted features of the site.

Top 5 most credible French UFO cases

The criterion for this ranking is not visual spectacle, but documentary strength: number of independent witnesses, physical traces, official classification (or international equivalent), absence of conventional explanation after thorough investigation. Five cases stand out.

1. Trans-en-Provence Var · January 8, 1981 · class D Renato Nicolaï observes a metallic saucer-shaped object briefly land in his garden. The GEPAN intervenes on site 24 hours later and collects soil and plant samples. CEA Saclay laboratory analyses reveal abnormal soil compaction (equivalent to several tons of pressure on 2.4 m²), localised thermal wear and biochemical modifications of the wild alfalfa: chlorophyll reduced by 30-50%, slowed growth, accelerated aging. The case is one of very few featuring objectifiable, reproducible physical traces. Official GEPAN classification: D (unexplained).
2. Cussac Cantal · August 29, 1967 · class D Two children (François and Anne-Marie Delpeuch, 9 and 13) tending cattle observe four small beings near a bright sphere, which then rises vertically with a whistling sound. The gendarmerie investigation, then the GEPAN ten years later, find no inconsistency in the separate testimonies. A persistent sulphuric smell is noted on site. Class D, the case remains one of the most discussed in the French archives.
3. Aveyron Wave / Roumagnac affair Aveyron · 1966-1967 · multi-witness wave Between autumn 1966 and summer 1967, more than sixty observations are reported across Aveyron, Rouergue and the borders of Tarn-et-Garonne. The most structured case is that of farmer Roumagnac, who describes a luminous ball hovering above a field, followed by a complete shutdown of his tractor engine and a circular grazing trace 3.80 m in diameter. This wave is the historical foundation of Vigi-Sky's Aveyron Wave 1966-2025 Report.
4. Belgian Wave (French-Belgian border) Hainaut, Liège, Ardennes · Nov 29, 1989 - April 1990 Nearly 2,000 testimonies in five months, including hundreds in northern France and the Ardennes. Silent black triangles, with three white lights and a central red one, are observed by Belgian gendarmes and tracked simultaneously by two ground radars and a Belgian F-16 onboard radar on March 30-31, 1990. The iconic Petit-Rechain photograph (April 1990) remains one of the most analysed UFO images in the world — its authenticity has been established by several Belgian university teams, with no fakery demonstrated.
5. Île-de-France 1947 Paris region · 1947 · pre-Roswell case A few weeks after the foundational Kenneth Arnold sighting (June 24, 1947, US), several converging testimonies emerge in the Paris region: luminous spheres observed above Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, followed by a localised power outage on July 14. These cases, well before the creation of GEPAN, never benefited from a formal investigation, but they constitute the first documented UFO reports on French soil.

The most reported shapes

Shape typology is a structuring data point in UFO analysis. It reflects both the nature of the phenomenon, human perceptual biases, and cultural evolution: before 1947, "flying saucers" did not exist in literature; after the alleged Roswell crash, they became the absolute standard. Here is the current distribution, calculated on the 18,116 Vigi-Sky cases.

The typological shift across decades is one of the strongest arguments in the sociological debate about UFOs: if all these objects had identical origin (e.g. extraterrestrial), why would they change shape according to the dominant cultural imagination? Conversely, defenders of the non-conventional hypothesis emphasise that Tic-Tacs were observed and tracked by radar as early as 2004, a decade before they entered popular culture after the Pentagon declassification of 2017 — which a priori rules out simple cultural suggestion.

Vigi-Sky's Green Cigars 2024-2025 Report documents precisely the unexpected resurgence of the cigar shape, particularly above southwestern France, after four decades of near-absence in statistics.

French and worldwide hot-spots

While UFO reports are theoretically random across territories, GEIPAN + Vigi-Sky mapping reveals persistent statistical surdensity zones over fifty years. Several factors combine: density of potential witnesses, sky quality (low light pollution), proximity of sensitive military zones, and — for some sites — local media amplification effects.

The Vigi-Sky interactive map allows zooming into each French department to view the local case timeline. For international comparison: the Hudson Valley (US) totals more than 5,000 reports concentrated in 1982-1986, and the Hessdalen zone (Norway) has been the subject of recurring observations since 1981, with a permanent automated scientific recording station — a model France could draw inspiration from.

Claude AI approach — how Vigi-Sky analyses your report

Vigi-Sky's specific contribution lies in its analysis engine powered by Anthropic's Claude AI. Where GEIPAN relies on rigorous but slow human investigation, Vigi-Sky offers a first automated analysis in less than sixty seconds, cross-checking your report with seven external real-time data sources.

The analysis pipeline has six stages:

1. Structured extraction of your account: date, UTC time, geolocation, shape, duration, behaviour.
2. ISS cross-check: verification of the International Space Station passing over your position at the indicated time (NASA / WhereTheISS API).
3. Starlink cross-check: analysis of SpaceX constellation trajectories visible at the given time and place (elevation, magnitude, direction of travel).
4. Atmospheric reentries cross-check: query of the US Space Command database to identify possible space debris.
5. Air traffic cross-check: OpenSky Network query for visible commercial and military traffic.
6. Weather and natural phenomena cross-check: ball lightning, sprites, Thai lanterns, weather balloons released in the area.

After this cross-checking, Claude AI produces three probability-weighted hypotheses (e.g.: 65% Starlink satellite, 25% airplane at unusual angle, 10% unidentified phenomenon), each with a reasoned justification and the factual data invoked. Vigi-Sky's editorial commitment is explicit: no "weather balloon" or "Venus" explanation is offered by default. If cross-checks do not explain the observation, the report is marked as a candidate anomalous case and submitted to the team's human review queue.

This approach — AI as analytical assistant, human as final arbiter — allows handling a volume of reports impossible to process by hand, while preserving scientific integrity. Of 1,240 reports processed in 2024-2025 by Vigi-Sky, 71% were identified as known phenomena at the AI analysis stage, 22% were classified as "insufficient documentation", and 7% (87 cases) were flagged as anomalous and remain under investigation.

Practical UFO reporting FAQ

How do I know if what I saw is a UFO or a known phenomenon?

The golden rule: a UFO is by definition unidentified. If you see a bright object crossing the sky in a straight line at constant speed with high apparent magnitude, there is a 90% chance it is the ISS or a Starlink satellite. A very bright "moving" star is almost always Venus or Jupiter. Before any report, cross-check your observation with the live Vigi-Sky module that aggregates these data.

Will GEIPAN call me or visit me?

No, except in exceptional cases. GEIPAN handles reports remotely via their investigation procedure. An on-site visit is triggered only for multi-witness cases with physical traces or corroborated radar detection. You will however receive an official classification (A/B/C/D) once instruction is complete, generally within 6 to 18 months.

Do I need to have seen an "extraterrestrial" object to report?

Absolutely not, and this is a fundamental misunderstanding. The term UFO designates any unidentified phenomenon, with no presupposition about its nature. Most GEIPAN reports concern objects whose observer simply does not know what they are: a too-bright satellite, a drone with unusual shape, a rare atmospheric phenomenon. All these reports are useful, if only to enrich statistics.

Will my report be anonymous?

GEIPAN guarantees anonymity in its publications (publicly released reports only mention the municipality and the date, never the witnesses). Vigi-Sky offers the same standard: your name never appears on the worldwide map, only the observation characteristics are published.

What happens if I file a false testimony?

GEIPAN has tools to detect false reports (temporal inconsistencies, implausible location, doctored photos analysed by forensic expertise). A repeated false testimony can lead to a gendarmerie report for "spreading false news". To note: an erroneous testimony in good faith (you thought you saw a UFO when it was the ISS) is never sanctioned — that is precisely the role of the investigation.

Seeing an unexplained object in the sky does not make you a believer — it makes you a witness. And a documented witness is worth a thousand hypotheses.