Analysis: Colorado Springs UAP Incident, 2022
- Date
- 15 Feb 2022
- Place
- Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
An AARO Intelligence Community partner's analysis of a February 15, 2022 sighting by five US Army service members at Fort Carson: a stationary, angular, non-symmetrical 'potato'-shaped, roughly jet-sized, translucent/shimmering white object seen about 6 miles away, 300-500 feet above Cheyenne Mountain, slowly changing shape for 30-180 seconds before suddenly disappearing. The analyst assesses, with explicitly LOW confidence, that sunlight backscattering off snow-covered ground reflecting onto low-level clouds (given the sun's position and reported/historical snow depth) could account for the object's appearance and sudden disappearance, while noting witness field-of-view and cloud-cover uncertainty and that no aircraft or balloons were active in the area at the time.
What officials concluded
Tentative explanation
Possible backscattering of sunlight off snow-covered ground onto low-level clouds, given the sun's low-altitude angled position and likely 6-12 inch snow depth, could account for the object's visibility and sudden disappearance if the sun…
- Agency
- Intelligence Community Agency
- Released in
- 123456
AARO comment
This event remains part of AARO's unresolved case inventory as of June 2026 despite the low-confidence tentative explanation offered (per manifest description); the file itself is the IC partner's supporting analysis, not AARO's own final case disposition.
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- Yes: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- Yes: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating Five witnesses is notable, but all sensing was unaided visual observation at 6 miles' distance with weather-data uncertainty (conflicting cloud-cover reports), and the government's own analyst offers a plausible optical/atmospheric explanation, albeit at low confidence; no instrumentation or radar corroboration is present.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- 5 US Army service members at Fort Carson, Colorado
- Sensors
- Visual
- Shape
- Angular, non-symmetrical, described as resembling a 'potato' made of uneven panels
- Size
- Roughly the size of a large jet
- Lights and colour
- Slightly translucent, shimmering white, with a milky shimmer reflecting sunlight
- Motion
- Completely stationary while observed, slowly changing shape, then suddenly disappeared
- Duration
- Approximately 30-180 seconds
- Altitude or range
- 6 miles distant, 300-500 feet above the mountain
Pentagon files
ICA-UAP-D001, Analysis: Colorado Springs UAP Incident, 2022
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
Five service members independently observed a stationary, shape-shifting, jet-sized object near Cheyenne Mountain for up to three minutes before it suddenly vanished.
- Unverified
No aircraft or balloons were recorded as active in or around Cheyenne Mountain at the time of the sighting.
On the map
38.74° N, 104.84° W, plotted at the site
Show on the map