(ME24) AARO: Middle East 2024

[Mick West]

Article:

This video is provided for informational purposes only. Viewers should not interpret any part of the video description below as reflecting an analytic judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event's validity, nature, or significance. Viewers should not interpret the absence of a formal assessment as suggestive of anomalous characteristics.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office received a report from a U.S. military Service consisting of six minutes and forty-one seconds of video footage from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform. The recording, captured in the Middle East in 2024, depicts an apparent thermal contrast within the sensor's field of view. The area of apparent contrast exhibited characteristics that may be consistent with the presence of a physical object. However, due to the absence of corroborating telemetry or multi-modal sensor data, AARO cannot determine whether the observed signature represents a sensor artifact or a thermal emission or reflection from a physical source. The available data does not support a conclusive analytic evaluation.

Source: https://www.dvidshub.net//video/962722/unresolved-uap-report-middle-east-2024

Similar to The 2023 case: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/aaro-release-—-unresolved-uap-report-middle-east-2023.14190/ , this video looks like another drone flyby of a drifting object with lots of parallax and specular thermal reflections. Initially some mylar balloons are a good fit.

This video lacks a wider view, so geolocation is very unlikely. However, it does have the N heading, which should still be useful.

 

[Mick West]

To distinguish these cases, I suggest we refer to them as ME23 and ME24

 

[Ann K]

There's a distinct shape to this one, but it seems to resemble a cluster of balloons.

 

[Calter]

due to the absence of corroborating telemetry or multi-modal sensor data, AARO cannot determine whether the observed signature represents a sensor artifact or a thermal emission or reflection from a physical source.

Do we know what kind of data they do have? I assume they just have this video but without the censored bits, but maybe even they have censored parts.

It's hard to get a sense of scale (or a sense of anything) with this kind of video, but I'd put my money on a balloon.

 

[Mick West]

Do we know what kind of data they do have? I assume they just have this video but without the censored bits, but maybe even they have censored parts.

I suspect they have uncensored video. Possibly they have the original .ts format video with embedded MISB position and heading data. The missing telemetry is the distance.

All we have is the N, which give us heading. This one is different to ME23.

ME23 had a distinctive arctangent shape, indicating a straight line flyby (relative velocity).

But with ME24, it's nearly a straight line -

this indicates a constant turn rate of the camera heading, which indicates circling - either the object circling the platform, or the platform (the drone) circling the object. I suspect the latter.

But that's not for sure, there is a slight curve, so it could be a flatter portion of an arctangent. I'm not sure that makes sense.

Here's a sitch with a curved path and the video

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...s.com/1/ME24 _ curved Path/20250516_221257.js

 

[Mendel]

Some obvious observations:
• the "swinging" motion is similar to ME23, where we could show it reflects the way that the operator is manually tracking the object
• the "dissolve" at the end is the object going out of focus, the "blur" gets spread so thin that it's big and hard to see
• the sudden size/width changes look optical. They may be artifacts of the onboard image processing, or possibly caused by atmospheric distortion.
• the big dark circle is a camera artifact, presumably caused by the Narcissus effect.

I don't think the video shows any anomalous behavior from the object.

I suspect that AARO may have been tasked with "disclosure", and instructed to share any and all UAP footage that can be declassified.

 

[Mendel]

But with ME24, it's nearly a straight line -

this indicates a constant turn rate of the camera heading, which indicates circling - either the object circling the platform, or the platform (the drone) circling the object. I suspect the latter.

But that's not for sure, there is a slight curve, so it could be a flatter portion of an arctangent. I'm not sure that makes sense.

Here's a sitch with a curved path and the video

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...s.com/1/ME24 _ curved Path/20250516_221257.js

I don't see how the sitch aligns with the heading diagram. Per your diagram, the sweep starts at ~ -170 = 190⁰, that is 10⁰ west of South, sweeping to -80 = 280⁰, that is 10⁰ north of West. If the arrow in the corner indicates North, the sitch looks more like it starts and ends ~30⁰ from South and West.

 

[Mick West]

I don't see how the sitch aligns with the heading diagram. Per your diagram, the sweep starts at ~ -170 = 190⁰, that is 10⁰ west of South, sweeping to -80 = 280⁰, that is 10⁰ north of West. If the arrow in the corner indicates North, the sitch looks more like it starts and ends ~30⁰ from South and West.

North is indicate the same in both the video and the look view (lower right window), and this matches the main view.

Is my arrow unclear? Maybe it needs modifying.

 

[Mendel]

North is indicate the same in both the video and the look view (lower right window), and this matches the main view.

Is my arrow unclear? Maybe it needs modifying.

View attachment 80418

I think maybe perspective trips me up in the main view.

Spoiler: some purple lines

On the bottom picture, it is obvious that the N arrow is not parallel to the tile edge, and that's probably due to perspective. The 10⁰ west of south look ok there, but the 10⁰ north of West don't seem to fit the E-W tile edge.

Maybe reduce FOV and increase distance?