GEIPAN

GEIPAN (an acronym for Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, or unidentified aerospace phenomenon research and information group). (/ɡaɪˈpɑːn/), its name since September 2005. (The group was formerly known as GEPAN[1] from 1977 to 1988, and SEPRA[2] from 1988 to 2004), is a unit of the French Space Agency CNES whose brief is to investigate unidentified aerospace phenomena (UAP),[3] and make its findings available to the public.

GEIPAN
Study and Information Group on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena
Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés
Formation1977
Location
Websitegeipan.fr

The French Gendarmerie was instructed to channel data from reports of UFO sightings to SEPRA, which therefore was in a position to draw on a large database of such events. In cases where physical traces appeared to be present, SEPRA could call on the technical resources of CNES to perform a thorough scientific investigation. A famous example of such an investigation was in the Trans-en-Provence Case.

In March 2007, GEIPAN started to make its archives available online to the public.

French skeptics have criticized the quality of the work of the GEPAN.[4]

In March 26, 2007, the CNES own report says 28% of sightings remain unidentified.[5]

See also

References
  1. GEPAN stands for Groupe d'Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés (unidentified aerospace phenomenon research group)
  2. SEPRA formerly stood for Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrée Atmosphérique (atmospheric re-entry phenomena expertise department) and since 2000 stands for Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes Rares Aérospatiaux (rare aerospace phenomena expertise department)
  3. GEIPAN is clearly focused on UFO study, but UAP (PAN in french) is meant to cover a much broader area than UFO (OVNI in french) as UFO may imply the presence of a physical object despite any actual evidence of it.
  4. Rossoni, D., Maillot, E., & Déguillaume, E. (2007). Les ovnis du CNES – 30 ans d’études officielles. www.book-e-book.com. (extracts from the book in French) Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. Critical skeptical investigations of GEPAN's work.
  5. CNES report, March 26, 2007
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.