Contrary to the American model of UFO investigation, which is to leave it to the civilian agencies, the European governments do not always ignore unknown aircraft in their skies. One example of this interest in finding out what is actually going on is the French Government. In 1977 they created GEPAN, the Groupe d'Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés (unidentified aerospace phenomenon research group). This was begun as a unit of France's Space Agency CNES, the Centre National d'Études Spatiales. At first the unit, whose mission statement was to investigate unidentified aerospace phenomena and make its findings available to the public, was not taken very seriously.

GEPAN was reorganized and renamed SEPRA, the Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes Rares Aérospatiaux (rare aerospace phenomena expertise department) and given expanded resources and responsibilities. It was now put out to all French law enforcement that they should direct any such reports to SEPRA. It was hoped that with their expanded database, more could be learned from the investigations. Now whenever there seemed to be even trace physical evidence of UFO activity, SEPRA could access the technical resources of the French Space Agency, CNES, to make more exhaustive scientific investigations.

SEPRA operated until 2004 when it was once more reorganized and reopened and renamed GEIPAN, the Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés (unidentified aerospace phenomenon research and information group) in 2005. More emphasis was now placed on making their investigations more transparent to the public and in 2007 the unit's archives were made available online to all interested persons.

The French Space Agency, CNES, was founded in 1962 to conduct space activities and observations for both national reasons and as a part of the greater European Space Agency (ESA) and international cooperation. The establishment of GEPAN in 1977 was undertaken under the direction of Dr. Claude Poher, already with the CNES and experienced in the statistical analysis of thousands of observations around the world. As well as the small number of full-time staff CNES appointed them a scientific advisory board made up of physicists, astronomers, and legal experts.

A specific criteria for investigation and analysis was developed. These included not only physical trace evidence investigation but also psychological analysis of witnesses. Arrangements were made with law enforcement, the separate military branches, and meteorologist to funnel relevant reports to them. SEPRA replaced them in 1988, headed up by M. J-J. Velasco, an original member of GEPAN. Its mission was to investigate all re-entry phenomena including totally known objects like satellites and missile launch hardware. Regrettably, with this addition to their duties, the study of UFO's was drastically diminished. By the time the unit was once more reorganized into GIEPAN, there were over 3,000 investigated incident reports. While most were ultimately explained as mundane objects, there are still over a hundred listed as requiring further investigation and a handful rated as totally unknown.

While maintaining the past integrity of the project, GEIPAN has added an important element to their overall mission. They are specifically mandated to make all the information they uncover accessible and available to the public. To this end, their archives are maintained online in both French and in English. GEIPAN is currently overseen by an independent steering committee chaired by the former Director General of the CNES, Yves Sillard and 15 members made up of civil and military authorities and research scientists from the national science research center and the national weather service.

It is rare to find this much government openness about UFO's anywhere in the world. One can only imagine if the government of the United States or Russia was to suddenly come clean with the information they have sat on for decades.

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Essential Links:

Official Site of GEIPAN (in French)

CNES website for GEIPAN (in English)
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While the sighting of an unexplainable light pattern or aircraft in the sky can and seemingly does occur just about everywhere sooner or later, there are some places that seem to draw in UFO's like moths to a candle flame. There so-called "hotspots" tend to have a much higher percentage of UFO sightings than other, seemingly similar, places around the world. It is not just the secluded forests and deserts that draw UFO activity. Many of the most populous areas and cities also provide these high per capita sighting reports. It begs the question of just what is so interesting in these oft-visited places that bring such a large number of unidentified craft flying over.

Arizona, in the United States, has experienced more than its share of high-profile UFO cases. Leading the state in reports is the city of Phoenix. As well as the well-documented case of the "Phoenix Lights" in 1997, Arizona's Apache National Forest was the location of the famous Travis Walton abduction. Sedonia, Arizona also reports higher than normal UFO traffic. Metaphysicists say UFO's are drawn to Sedonia because it lies at the intersection of natural Earth energies or vortices (read lay lines) in the area.

Just north of Arizona is the state with the highest per capita percentage of UFO sightings and reports. Colorado is well known for its high elevation and the Rocky Mountains. It also contains Saguache County, which seems to be at the center of the greatest UFO activity. While Nevada reports a greater per capita sighting ratio, possibly because of the fame of the "secret" Area 51, Texas reports over five times as many sightings. Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, and Minnesota also see much more UFO activity than the well-traveled Highway 95 out of Rachel, Nevada.

Mexico City, Mexico, has also become a major UFO hotspot over the last twenty years. From the multiple sightings on July 11, 1991 when the fleet of unidentified craft stole the show from the solar eclipse that was taking place, to 2005 when the greatest recorded mass sighting was filmed over the city, Mexicans have often been presented with spectacular aerial displays.

While they rarely get groups of UFO's over their town, Bonnybridge, Scotland can claim a record for the most sightings from any town in the world. With an average of 300 separate reports a year, it is no wonder the local government petitioned the Prime Minister to order an official investigation into the matter. To date, those investigations have still been regrettably inconclusive. Warminster in Wiltshire, England may be most famous for crop circles but also manages one of the highest incident levels in the UK for UFO sightings. Some believe this is because UFO's are still using nearby Stonehenge as a navigational marker for their flights.

These possibly extraterrestrial visitors do not neglect the Southern Hemisphere. Barely 150 miles South of Santiago, Chili, a 19 mile long section of road near San Clement has been host to so many UFO sightings that the tourism department has attempted to cash in on the phenomena by renaming the road "The UFO Trail."

Down under in Australia, Wycliffe Well in the Northern Territory has some of the highest UFO activity in the world. Not only are UFO's repeatedly sighted, the number of abduction cases has garnered the town with a reputation as the alien abduction capitol of the continent. Even the nearby military air base cannot account for the recurring sightings and visitations that seem to so plague this otherwise peaceful town which the metaphysicists say also falls on natural Earth energy lines like Sedonia, Arizona and Stonehenge.

That Unidentified Flying Objects are appearing in record numbers all around the world is an undeniable fact. For those who wonder what this increased UFO activity might mean it is essential that they keep up with the most current news and sighting reports possible. Due to the dedication of a vast number of investigators and interested people, the Internet has become the single greatest source of information about the UFO phenomena. Regrettably it can also be the greatest source of misinformation and hoaxes but, with a little care, the facts can be more easily separated from the lies.

Undoubtedly the most significant website dedicated to spreading information and documentation of mysterious sightings is MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network. Comprised of thousands of people worldwide, this organization is dedicated to "The Analytical and Scientific Study of the UFO Phenomenon for the Benefit of Humanity." This work includes pouring through all the reports of unusual sightings around the world and trying to determine just what caused it. In their efforts to avoid sensationalism MUFON has been accused of being a debunking organization, however, their focus is actually to instill as much fact as possible in their conclusions.

One of the features offered on their website is a listing of all the reports sent to them. Conclusions are shared after an investigation of the facts has been performed. A daily check of their Last 20 Sighting Reports will help keep you informed of the latest breaking news about what is being reported to MUFON. These reports often contain raw footage, pictures, and audio whenever it has been provided with the report.

In conjunction with UFO Stalker, MUFON provides a link to a real-time map of the latest 25 sightings reported, with links back to the case file at MUFON. They also provide links to other reporting agencies including the National UFO Reporting Center and the Center for UFO Studies. There are articles media concerning past UFO cases so that one can peruse a vast amount of information about the phenomena and add to your own understanding of the widespread scope and major implications of such mysterious worldwide occurrences. This awareness from an organization that attempts to present the most factual information is doubly important in regards to how little information is shared with people by the governments that are supposed to protect them.

While a great deal of their information is provided by MUFON, the website About.com also provides a very exhaustive section on the UFO phenomena. Unlike MUFON, About does not investigate cases but catalogues and reports on a wide range of information regarding the potential alien connection to UFO's, crop circles, abductions, and the hoaxes that try to divert people away from the facts. About also takes reports from several of the other major UFO reporting centers and presents it in article format for easier consumption by the curious and intrigued. They provide a good working basis for UFO Basics, both current cases and famous historical sightings and encounters, and information of what can best be gleaned about the extra-terrestrial life forms we may be dealing with.

It is a well-known educational axiom that Knowledge is Power. Keeping informed and up-to-date about the greater mysteries that are reported in our sky and on our planet can provide one with a better understanding of what may be a crucial underlying aspect of how we interact with our governing agencies. It may also provide us with a glimpse of a much larger and more populated universe than we might have originally imagined.

There are reasons it takes a clear head and a tight control over one's emotions in order to accurately and successfully investigate unusual lights and objects in the sky. For the serious UFO hunter it is every bit as important to find proof of a sighting as having a normal, natural cause as it is to find proof of an extra terrestrial nature. Objectivity is the keyword to showing the skeptics that the research is sound and accurate so the investigator’s credibility becomes undeniable. A case for this is in the recent investigation of the lights over Lake Erie.

The first reports were of nightly sightings out over the Lake of lights that seemed to hover for awhile before slowly moving off. Being so close to major population centers, the media, beginning with Fox News out of Cleveland and quickly being picked up by the MSNBC Network, quickly popularized the story and spread it around the world. Despite there being no great amazing details, merely that the lights were appearing in the same places and performing the same maneuvers on a nightly basis, MUFON realized it needed to investigate since there was so much interest in the accounts. They had their suspicions from the start that what was being seen was a misidentification of normal aircraft behavior.

Ohio Mutual UFO Network investigator Tom Wertman went on the case. Beginning at the site of the initial reports he coordinated with the witness and began a mutual observation with timeframe checks and a comparison software program that kept up with commercial airplane flights into and out of the Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport in real-time updates. By the end of the night, three sets of lights, which the witness attested to were what he had been seeing nightly, had all matched up to incoming aircraft as they swung out over Lake Erie before coming in toward the landing field.

In conclusion, the report demonstrated that distance and angle of flight were responsible for the misidentification of possible UFO traffic. As the planes were moving away or toward the area they seemed to hover. As they were flying low and slow, the small variation in intensity was nearly impossible to detect. Only as the planes made their curve around to begin their landing approach would the lights seem to begin moving across the sky.

Such misidentification of ordinary aircraft is a common problem for UFO investigators, especially when the media hypes the story without investigating it first. To prevent such occurrences from diminishing the importance of real unknown sightings it is critical to educate the public to the types of behavior of lights in the sky that are explainable. However much a believer in UFO activity may want to witness a touch of the mysterious, it is necessary to be able to rule out all the mundane possibilities first. Only then can serious research be directed at the things in our sky that fail to be proven as a normal occurrence. Only then will the population at large begin to realize that ufologists are seeking the truth behind the phenomena rather than the sensationalism of the unknown.