Official Data & Method
France’s GEIPAN shows why ‘not identified’ has two very different meanings
Worth Revisiting: the official method separates cases lacking enough data from cases that remain unusual after investigation.
Briefed August 6, 2026 · Aliens in the Clouds
Worth Revisiting
CNES’s GEIPAN describes a seven-step process covering testimony intake, file creation, initial analysis, investigation, classification, anonymization, witness notification, and publication. Its classifications weigh both the consistency of available data and the residual strangeness after comparison with known phenomena.
Category C means a phenomenon could not be identified because information is insufficient; Category D means it remains unidentified after investigation. GEIPAN’s June 25, 2026 statistics list 30.1 percent of published cases as C but only 3.1 percent as D, a concrete warning against treating every unresolved report as equally evidential.
Why it matters
Separating ‘we lack enough information’ from ‘a well-supported case resisted explanation’ prevents an administrative unknown from being inflated into an extraordinary conclusion.
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