UFO Photographed in the Clouds over Stockton, California

Case File Status: Explained

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

1	1	1	1	1	1	3	4
1	1	1	1	1	2	4	6
1	1	1	1	2	3	5	6
1	1	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	2	2	3	4	5	6	7
2	3	3	5	7	6	7	6
3	4	4	5	6	7	7	6
4	3	3	4	5	6	6	6

JPEG Q1: Chrominance

1	1	1	3	6	6	6	6
1	1	2	4	6	6	6	6
1	2	3	6	6	6	6	6
3	4	6	6	6	6	6	6
6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

 

File
File Type	JPEG
File Type Extension	jpg
MIME Type	image/jpeg
Exif Byte Order	Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
Image Width	1920
Image Height	2560
Encoding Process	Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample	8
Color Components	3
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling	YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
JFIF
JFIF Version	1.01
EXIF
Make	SAMSUNG
Camera Model Name	SGH-T599N
Orientation	Horizontal (normal)
X Resolution	72
Y Resolution	72
Resolution Unit	inches
Software	Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385
Modify Date	2018:11:07 14:27:46
Y Cb Cr Positioning	Co-sited
Exposure Time	1/2915
F Number	2.7
Exposure Program	Aperture-priority AE
ISO	50
Exif Version	0220
Date/Time Original	2014:05:09 14:14:59
Create Date	2014:05:09 14:14:59
Components Configuration	Y, Cb, Cr, –
Exposure Compensation	0
Max Aperture Value	2.7
Metering Mode	Center-weighted average
Flash	No Flash
Focal Length	3.5 mm
User Comment	User comments
Flashpix Version	0100
Color Space	sRGB
Exif Image Width	1920
Exif Image Height	2560
Interoperability Index	R98 – DCF basic file (sRGB)
Interoperability Version	0100
Exposure Mode	Auto
White Balance	Auto
Scene Capture Type	Standard
Padding	(Binary data 2060 bytes)
Compression	JPEG (old-style)
Thumbnail Offset	4966
Thumbnail Length	10396
Thumbnail Image	(Binary data 10396 bytes)
XMP
XMP Toolkit	XMP Core 5.1.2
Creator Tool	Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385
Composite
Aperture	2.7
Shutter Speed	1/2915
Focal Length	3.5 mm
Image Size	1920×2560
Light Value	15.4
Megapixels	4.9

 

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