Background

On October 26, 2018, this case was submitted to The Black Vault. It was assigned to TBV Investigations’ research Jeremy Enfinger for analysis.

Witness Testimony

The witness/photographer submitted the following information:

I was picking my grandchildren up from elementary school when I noticed everybody looking up in the sky I too looked up there and saw what I saw on the photos. The sighting date listed above (in the initial report) is wrong it was in 2014 I believe it was April. I couldn’t change sighting date on your program.

The sighting was reported to have occurred near the intersection of Thornton Rd. and Estate Dr. in Stockton, California around (or near) April of 2014. Four photos were submitted of an anomaly in the sky witnessed by multiple people (appearing in some of the photos).

The Evidence

The Analysis

Metadata analysis indicates the images are the original files, and EXIF metadata was able to be extracted. The image was taken from a Samsung SGH-T599N (5 MP) at a resolution of 1920 x 2560 pixels, using automatic exposure control with ISO 50, an exposure time of 1/2915 sec and an F-stop of 2.7. With the jpeg quality being 97%, there is no indication that the image file has been compressed. The flash was not utilized.

The time stamp on the metadata indicates it was taken May 9, 2014 at 14:14 hours. Due to initial research, no photo manipulation techniques were employed.

Initial impressions indicated the photo was not manipulated, and no evidence of motion was present when comparing images. There were, however, subtle changes in appearance around the periphery of the anomaly which caused me to consider some sort of meteorological or atmospheric disturbance.

After retrieving the metadata, multiple Google searches for “UFO Stockton, California, 2014” and “Clouds in Stockton, California, 2014” for the months of April and May of that year yielded several results. Image results were found that matched the appearance in these images and multiple news article links varied in headlines from May 9 to include “UFO sightings” to descriptions of cloud formations that can cause this kind of appearance.

Conclusion

After consulting the numerous articles citing this phenomenon, it can be summarized as a “Hole Punch Cloud”, which appears as a large, circular gap that usually appears in cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds. Also called a “fallstreak hole”, it can happen when moisture in a cloud is at a temperature that’s below freezing, but the moisture itself is isn’t actually frozen. According to the Huffington Post, these formations can also be caused by aircraft passing through certain types of clouds.

References

Here was a FOX 40 submitted photograph from the same timeframe:

The Huffington Post also ran a story about it:

Also CBS Sacramento was another resource that covered it:

YouTube user MrPhath posted a video of it as well:

Original Metadata Information

Each photo was submitted to Fotoforensics, but for the purpose of this report, I will only include the link to one as the JPEG quality and metadata are corroborated in comparison.

Photo #1 Metadata (from FotoForensics): http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=d6040af2eb054b5764d749de34163b5000b459b0.1704869

JPEG last saved at 97% quality (estimated).

Quality determined from the quantization tables that encoded the JPEG:

JPEG Q0: Luminance

JPEG Q1: Chrominance

The post UFO Photographed in the Clouds over Stockton, California first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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I’m not convinced the mountain shape has actually changed, as that could be observed with telescopes. I’m sure the actual images of Area 51 are much different than what we see on Google Earth imagery.

Note: The above report was written by Photo Analyst David Mason. UFOs Northwest thanks him for this report. Through additional research I found that the same “artificial cloud” appears on a Google Earth image taken on June 28, 2010. The fact that the same cloud shows up on two individual Google Earth images taken nearly a year apart adds gravity that the cloud is not real and is a fabrication. The question is: What is the cloud concealing? Is it concealing a crash? As Dave Mason points out the sun doesn’t shine from the north in the northern hemisphere. The cloud measures two miles north to south and about one mile east to west.

Weather Conditions: It is not known the time that the images were taken. On Mar 13, 2011 a check of weather at Nellis Air Force Base showed that skies were clear for most hours of the day. There were a few clouds measured at 17,000 feet for some hours. Some clouds were first reported at 2 PM, but the next clouds were not seen until 6 PM. The cloud in the above photos probably is much lower than 17,000 feet. On June 28, 2010 a few clouds were measured at 10,000 feet later in the day. Skies were totally clear for most hours. On June 28, 2010 the clouds did not appear until around 6 PM. Satellite photos are generally taken earlier in the day when the sun angle is higher.

The post Google Earth Photos Reveal Strange Cloud Over Area 51 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Google Earth Photos Reveal Strange Cloud Over Area 51 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

The impressive video shows what appears to be some kind of UFO hovering behind a cloud. Or not, depending on your point of view – either way, it’s an impressive sight.

Could this be yet another Russian sighting of visitors from other galaxies? There’s certainly been plenty of unusual activity in that area over the last year if the increasingly bizarre findings are to be believed (see below for more Russian alien ‘evidence’).

Lenticular cloud formations, which form due to unusual wind conditions and moisture in high altitudes are often mistaken for UFOs because of their saucer shapes – but of course, that’s what THEY want us to think. In this case, the light from the sun makes it look all the more spectacular. See the video above.

The post UFO cover cloud video surfaces online first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO cover cloud video surfaces online appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.