From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GEIPAN
(an acronym for
Groupe d'Etudes et d'Informations sur les Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non-identifies
or Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon Research and Information Group)(
), is a unit of the French Space Agency
CNES
whose brief is to investigate unidentified aerospace phenomena (UAP),
[1]
and make its findings available to the public. The group, formerly known as
GEPAN
[2]
from 1977 to 1988 and
SEPRA
[3]
from 1988 to 2004, has been named GEIPAN since September 2005.
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. The same year, French skeptics have criticized the quality of their investigative work, arguing the sightings are too quickly filed as unidentified.
[4]
On March 26, 2007, the CNES own report says 28% of sightings remain unidentified.
[5]
More recent reports of GEIPAN estimate the unidentified sightings at around 3%.
[6]
[7]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
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.
- ^
GEPAN stands for
Groupe d'Etude des Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non-identifies
(unidentified aerospace phenomenon research group)
- ^
SEPRA formerly stood for
Service d'Expertise des Phenomenes de Rentree Atmospherique
(atmospheric re-entry phenomena expertise department) and since 2000 stands for
Service d'Expertise des Phenomenes Rares Aerospatiaux
(rare aerospace phenomena expertise department)
- ^
Rossoni, D., Maillot, E., & Deguillaume, E. (2007). Les ovnis du CNES ? 30 ans d’etudes 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.
- ^
CNES report, March 26, 2007
- ^
Costes, Vincent (2022-11-03).
"Ovnis : comment travaillent les scientifiques pour etudier les phenomenes aerospatiaux non identifies"
.
The Conversation
. Retrieved
2023-12-14
.
- ^
"Geipan | GEIPAN"
.
www.cnes-geipan.fr
. Retrieved
2023-12-14
.
External links
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]
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