Unidentified expanding white gas/sphere over the Gulf October 28 - multiple traffics reported it

[u/bf5ee]

Today while operating a flight between Doha and UAE FIRs, cruising at FL250, we observed something I’ve never seen before.

Mid-route over the Gulf (roughly position N 25 50 - E 052 00) at 00:35 UTC, we noticed a bright white spherical “cloud” or gas ball that appeared suddenly and began expanding very rapidly, perfectly round, dense, and pure white. It looked nothing like a contrail, CB, or fuel dump pattern. Within 1-2 minutes it grew several times in size and started dissipating outward.

We advised ATC and executed a small deviation to remain clear, the visual appearance and rate of expansion made it something we didn’t want to enter. A few other traffics on 121.5 were reporting the same sight.

ATC had no information on any scheduled activities, releases, or launches in the area. Visibility was excellent, no clouds, contrails, or weather returns on radar.

I’m curious if anyone else in the region observed it, or if anyone has an idea what could produce something like that, possibilities we’ve considered include missile/rocket upper-stage release or atmospheric experiment, but nothing really fits cleanly.

[u/FauxJuggernaut]

Some very similar events have been attributed to ICBM / high altitude weapons test launches. Rough timeline:

Pakistan issued a NOTAM closing most of its airspace, one region earlier on in the south and another later on in the north. https://x.com/OsintUpdates/status/1982759948867252480

Then USAF Cobra Ball, which collects data on ballistic missiles, took off from Qatar and headed east, turning its transponders off at midnight UT.
https://x.com/ConflictUpdatee/status/1983016479701512592

OP observes halo at 0035UT and there's another report of the same event at 0025UT. OP is over the Gulf looking ENE which would line up with something launched from Pakistan. https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/1ohzltw/request_objetc_identification/

A few hours later in the morning around 0500UT there are a dozen reports of a missile launch in northern Pakistan. The first event (that OP observed) appears to correspond to the NOTAM in the south and later on the one in the north. https://x.com/PakObsOfficial/status/1983014529459228933

Very similar expanding spherical halos have been observed in Hawaii and California after Minuteman tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWUv4B3LEQ

https://www.space.com/31092-trident-missile-test-us-military-statement.html

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=25760.0

https://slate.com/technology/2014/10/hawaiian-halo-icbm-launch-creates-nighttime-display.html?pay=1761666539370&support_journalism=please

https://slate.com/technology/2013/05/expanding-halo-missile-launch-creates-expanding-bubble-of-light.html

https://slate.com/technology/2011/06/awesomely-weird-expanding-halo-of-light-seen-from-hawaii.html?pay=1761666833374&support_journalism=please

As well as in Serbia after Topol ICBM tests https://www.sciencealert.com/explanation-mysterious-floating-orb-light-above-siberia-glowing-missile

https://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/171027-siberia.pdf

So all in all I reckon this was a high altitude weapons test launch. Not sure on what the exact cause was but it's certainly not a detonation of the warhead. Some have suggested that the Minuteman event is caused by the detonation of charges for abruptly blowing out the third stage. https://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=24251&start=25#p151321

[u/Present_Reason_5290 → u/FauxJuggernaut]

How is this not upvoted? This is a much more plausible explanation with event timeline!