The spot leaves the frame at the end of the video. The official explanation: The aircraft may have moved closer to it.
A military sensor tracked a dark area until it left the frame. It may have appeared larger because the aircraft moved closer to it, but its source remains unidentified.
DOW-UAP-PR45 is a 58.77-second 1920x1080 H.264 infrared sensor video submitted to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) by the Department of the Air Force, depicting an unresolved UAP observation from a U.S. military platform in 2020. The footage shows a heavily redacted IR sensor display (large black rectangles cover most HUD/banner text) with a centered crosshair acquiring and tracking a small target inside a red oval reticle lock, accompanied by a magenta closure/track ring and a small magenta indicator dot in the upper portion of the frame. Across the keyframes the centered area of contrast progresses from an essentially indistinct point to a visibly solid bright blob inside the reticle, consistent with the DVIDS narration that the U.S. platform was closing distance. The reporter provided no oral or written description; AARO's only comment is that apparent size growth is at least partially attributable to platform closure on the source.
58 seconds of infrared sensor footage of an area of contrast tracked by a U.S. military platform. 00:00-00:03 sensor acquires reticle lock on the area of contrast; 00:04-00:30 area of contrast gradually increases in distinctiveness against the background; 00:31 sensor narrows field-of-view (zoom-in); 00:32-00:56 area of contrast increases in apparent size and distinctiveness; 00:57-00:58 area of contrast leaves center of frame and exits the sensor field-of-view in the bottom-right corner.
U.S. military platform (unspecified)
aircraft
Infrared (IR) sensor
sensor
All overlaid HUD text/banner regions across every sampled keyframe (top, sides, bottom of the IR display, including the area immediately around the centered targeting reticle) are obscured by large solid black rectangles in a typical document-style redaction pattern. No HUD text, sensor mode, altitude, heading, range, lat/lon, time-of-day, platform tail/callsign, or classification banner is legible.
Likely reason: Operational security / source-and-methods protection: hiding sensor type, platform identity, geolocation telemetry, time, and classification markings.
Video-only record; no PDF text. All structured observations come from DVIDS metadata + 6 sampled keyframes. Heavy on-frame redaction means almost no telemetry/HUD information is recoverable; group with other PR-series 'Unresolved UAP Report' IR videos in the 5/8/26 release. Flag the Middle East vs Southern United States location conflict for the locations report — DVIDS (the authoritative public source) says Middle East.
A dark area that looks different from the background. The sensor tracks it until it leaves the frame.
The sensor zoomed in, and the military aircraft may also have moved closer to the source. The source is unknown.
No. The person who reported the video provided no description of what they saw.
In a short video from 2020, a military sensor tracks a dark area in the image. The area grows more prominent, then disappears beyond the edge of the screen.
The sensor displays differences in heat. The dark shade means the area looks different from the background, but it doesn’t reveal what the area is or whether it’s warmer or colder. The video was included in a report about an unidentified phenomenon. But the person who reported it provided no description of what they saw. That missing detail leaves the video open to interpretation.
The video runs for nearly a minute and was recorded by an infrared sensor, which displays differences in heat. At the start, the sensor detects an area that looks different from the background and begins tracking it.
As the video continues, the area grows more prominent. Then the sensor narrows the portion of the scene it displays, like a camera zooming in. This gives a closer view of the area, but makes it harder to tell what’s happening around it.
After the sensor zooms in, the area appears larger. Near the end of the video, it passes into the lower-right corner and moves out of the sensor’s range. The footage ends without identifying what was there.
The official explanation suggests that the area appears larger, at least in part, because the military aircraft itself moved closer to the source. In other words, the change in size on screen doesn’t prove that the area grew. The distance between it and the sensor may simply have decreased.
The video was included in an official report about an unidentified phenomenon, but the report doesn’t say it was an aircraft or explain what appears in the footage. It describes only what happens in the image, while the official note offers a possible explanation for the change in size.
The source of the dark area is unknown, and the person who reported the video provided no description, either orally or in writing. The official explanation is that the military aircraft probably moved closer to the source, at least in part; it does not identify the source itself.
At the end of the video, the spot is gone. What exactly passed through the frame?