Clouds

Kentaro Mori, January 13, 2004

It must be noted here that the digital images used on this amateur analysis are not of the best quality. That said, we will do what we can from them. Not much, but something.

To analyze the clouds, a local equalization filter was applied to all the sky parts of the eight scans from two sets of first print scans. The result:

From Covo scans:

P1

P2

P3

P4

From Olmos scans:

P1

P2

P3

P4

Just to be sure, some comparison was made between the clouds seen on the same shots but of the two different sets. No significant differences were found.

Animation: comparison on P3

Animation: comparison on P4

Now for interesting things. Comparisons of different shots. Do the clouds also match, even at some degree?

Animation: Comparison of P1 and P2, from Covo's prints

Animation: Comparison of P1 and P4, from Covo's prints

Animation: Comparison of P1 from Covo and P4 from Olmos prints

The difference on the clouds from P1 to P4 is the most significant and curious. It's improbable that the clouds could change that much on 14 seconds, the time lapse claimed by Barauna between the first and last shot:

A question must also be asked: the type of clouds on P1 seem completely different from those on P4. A meteorologist will be consulted. Could a time lapse on the order of minutes account for so much change on the clouds appearance, making allowance only to the clouds natural movements and changes? It must be noted that even though different shots were probably treated differently (because Barauna enhanced the contrast of them manually), the difference between them could not be that big (taking into account that all shots were taken with the same camera settings), after all only the contrast was enhanced by Barauna.
Could the first and last shots have been taken on different days, but at the same time (because the position of the sun seems more or less equal on both of them)? That would explain the discrepancies on the sky appearance, but to consider this hypothesis, the ship must have been anchored on the same spot, and the photographer on the same location on the ship, as both the first and last shots seem to have been taken on the same location relative to the island.

Below is a comparison of P1 and P4, processed only on their gamma and contrast values:

Preliminary conclusions
The clouds differences seem incompatible with the story of the photos as commonly given. At the very least, the time lapse from the first to the last shot is on the order of minutes, not seconds, and very strong winds account for the changes. At most, the first and the last shot were taken on diferent days and/or, more probable, the difference on the sky appearance is due to the photographic tricks used to create the UFO.

END

Acknowledgements
Besides the usual collaborations and help, acknowledged on the index page, this page was also motivated by the valuable suggestions of Eric Maillot.