"The secret UFO video filmed by Finnish officials"

FUFORA (Finnish UFO Research Association) has published three infrared video clips and a rather sensationalized account on them. They were apparently shot and passed to FUFORA by a former employee of the Finnish border guard without the knowledge of the of the employer.

The secrecy in this case is a choice by FUFORA - the officials apparently didn't even know about the video until FUFORA issued its press release. Reportedly there is hours of footage but for some reason only three short clips (varying between about 15 and 50 seconds) have been released.

The video clips were shot with high-quality military IR equipment installed on a boat. They seem to display a point-like infrared sources. Apparently the objects weren't visible to naked eye.

The video links on FUFORA's page no longer work, but the clips are available on archive.org:

video clip 1: infraredvideo.wmv
video clip 2: infraredvideo2.mpg
video clip 3: infraredvideo3.mpg

Shape - video clip 1

FUFORA suggests the objects are rod-shaped and considers this is remarkable, especially that they maintain their vertical position even while supposedly performing quick movements around.

The rod-like shape is apparent in the first video clip, but not so much in the two others.

Another unique characteristic of the first video is the clear rasterization due to heavy digital zoom. The separate pixels are clearly visible. The "rod-like" object seems to consist of two or three pixels on top of each other. In the two other video clips the object seems more point-like.

The vertical "rod-like" shape may be due to blooming, a known characteristic defect of CCD image sensors used in digital (also infrared) imaging. Any sufficiently strong point-like IR source would appear as a vertical rod unless some kind of correction technology is used.

Movement - video clip 2

The nature of the object's movement is unclear as there is mostly no stationary background to compare with. It appears that most of the erratic movement is due to the camera operator moving the camera set on high zoom.

There are two background dots visible for a short moment on the second video (from 00:06 to 00:09 or so). We can presume these two dots are stars and calculate "absolute" movement of the object, thus neutralizing the erratic camera movement.

It turns out that the object has a constant velocity and direction (within the margin of error).

The above image was produced by tracking the movement of the "star" dots and the "ufo" dot by hand and examining their relative positions. The frame number is on the horizontal axis. The vertical axis indicates the vertical position of the "ufo" dot relative to the "star" dots. The resultant movement seems constant.

This animation shows positions of the dots extracted from the video clip on the left side, and the calculated absolute motion of the "ufo" on the right side.

Background - video clip 3

The third video clip appears to show a dot moving and at times there is some background "clouds" or "areas" visible. If we examine how the "ufo" moves with respect to the background, we find something interesting: the vertical position of the "ufo" seems almost fixed to the camera position, even though it moves a lot relative to the "clouds".

The following clip demonstrates the "clouds" (contrast enhanced). The "ufo" pixel seems magically fixed to the camera along the vertical axis. The background moves with respect to the "ufo" and camera.

It seems that either

1) The background isn't stationary, physical object, but some kind of erroneous, unphysical artifact. This would leave us no point of reference, so in this case we can't say anything about the movement of the "ufo".

Or,

2) The background "clouds" are stationary, and the "ufo" is somehow attached to the camera or the boat.

Conclusion

The published data doesn't support the theory that there would be unexplainable phenomena manifesting in the video clips. FUFORA claims the objects perform quick manouvers impossible to any known human technology. However the limited available evidence released by FUFORA seems to suggest the IR sources are point-like and either stationary or in constant motion.

FUFORA claims the objects are "rectangular". However we can't state this as the objects are one pixel wide and the apparent vertical height of about three pixels in the first video clip may be due to the blooming effect.

The most natural explanation for the phenomena would be stars or satellites. There seems to be nothing in the available evidence that would rule out this explanation.

Update

The ufologist Björn Borg has interviewed a member of the boat crew was present during the filming. He has released his findings on FUFORA's discussion forum here (In Finnish) already in April 2010.

The interviewee, Jari Tukeva, served as mate on Merikarhu, the border guard boat in question. Some free translations of his comments:

"I am familiar with the IR camera used, and was present when this footage was recorded."
"I'm almost certain that the dots seen in the footage are satellites or other space junk."
"The illusion of irregular movement is probably due to the fact that the camera is thumb controlled and the controls are very sensitive."
"I stated my concerns while the filming was done, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
"The video looks much wilder than reality."
"Not everyone [of the crew] who saw the video thought there was anything special in it, so the video was considered as just a funny thing."
"The rod-like shape is because maximum zoom was used at that part, which causes all small, distant light sources to become rod-like."
"This 'heat source' on the video is just a few pixels on the camera display, and is distorted as rod-like."
"I used the camera almost daily on duty for 7 to 8 years, so I came quite familiar with it and its features."
"Tracking satellites with the maximum zoom is quite difficult. Because of this, the image becomes jerky and can easily create the impression that the object is changing its speed and velocity."
"These are my opinions and don't rule out other explanations."
"Most difficult about interpreting such video is of course, that there is no point of reference for movemental factors."
"In principle, a movement like that can be produced on a video with an IR camera even if the object is stationary."