Doughnut-Shaped UFOs Most Likely Weather Formations

UFOs come in all shapes and sizes, but have you ever heard of a doughnut-shaped aerial phenomenon?

Unusual weather-radar images have shown up on viewing screens in several countries, with one ring-like object appearing to be larger than Belgium.

Though these formations may look out of this world -- leading some to speculate they are UFOs "cloaking" and "uncloaking" themselves over Earth -- the odd shapes have more to do with meteorology than mother ships, according to experts.

In this first video, a very large, doughnut-shaped "thing" appears and disappears over Europe on a radar screen.

Turns out, this formation is only visible on radar screens, as it is a result of the kinds of radar antennae used to create the radar maps often broadcast during TV weather reports, according to Marc Dantonio, chief photo/video analyst for the Mutual UFO Network, an international organization dedicated to studying and solving the UFO enigma.

"That doughnut or ring is something called a melting circle, where snow melted and radar picks it up -- it's a very thick area that forms an anomalistic ring," Dantonio told AOL News.

When radar installations pick up these formations of melting snow, they miss an area directly above the antennae called the "cone of silence."

"The radar only has a certain range out to which it can go -- that's the outer border of the doughnut. And the inner border of the doughnut is based on the angle that the radar is aiming in the sky," Dantonio said.

Dantonio knows a thing or two about angles and precise measurements of things. He's president of FX Models, a Connecticut-based company that creates special effects and models for the History Channel and the Learning Channel, as well as numerous defense contractors, including the Navy, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Joint Chiefs in Washington, D.C.

"If you had this melting going on in the atmosphere, because of the nature of the melting circle and the way that the return comes back, it looks like a doughnut, because you've got that hole in the middle and then you've got the outer range of the radar," Dantonio said.

"And it appears so big on the screen because the radar has a fairly good size range to it. If this radar is up on top of a mountain, then the circle can be even bigger, and the doughnut hole might be bigger. It depends on the power output," he said.

The reason these images show up on the screen for a split second is because the radar is on for only about seven seconds per hour -- it sends out a little pulse and then listens for the echo return.

Besides the reported doughnut-shaped images brought back by radar, Dantonio points out other patterns as well.

"You can also see concentric rings, strange radiating rays, and if it's a shoreline radar installation, then you might get some really weird-looking straight lines behind each other, called a sea return -- an echo of large ocean swells miles out to sea," he said.

Some of these weird weather radar images were also picked up over different sections of Australia in early 2010 and observed on screens from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Though some observers consider the rings to be very geometric-looking UFOs, Dantonio cautions against jumping to otherworldly conclusions.

"There are so many weather anomalies that can cause the radar beam to change and do strange things," he said.

"It could look like a solid object of immense proportions with some definitive shape, and that can make people think a giant mother ship is coming, but, in fact, it's just a ground echo reflected back up into the sky."