China's Newest 'Floating City' Is No Mirage

China seems to have a monopoly on properties that float in the sky.

For the second time in five months, on March 18, a group of hovering buildings were reportedly seen and videotaped. Theories about what it could be ranged from a parallel universe portal to a hologram deliberately put into the sky to an alien invasion to a natural mirage known as a Fata Morgana, reports Express.co.uk.

On March 19, CCTV News -- China's 24-hour English language television channel -- posted the following video, saying:

"A stunning mirage depicting a group of buildings was seen above the sea along the port of Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Friday. Seen from the land, it appeared as though the buildings were looming in the fog, resembling a fairy city on the sea. Take a look at this splendid scene."

We have a few questions. What does this location look like when there's no fog? Who recorded this video? And is there any real evidence that hundreds of people reported seeing the city? Neither CCTV nor Express.co.uk responded to a request for comment from The Huffington Post, so we're left without some vital details. 

But analysis of a previous "floating city" over China reported in October provides some clues about what we're probably looking at. That city was supposedly observed by residents of the cities of Foshan and Jiangxi.

At the time, the apparition was widely explained as a natural mirage, or optical illusion, called a Fata Morgana. That hypothesis came from a Texas A&M University atmospheric scientist. 

Alan Melikdjanian is an independent filmmaker who also debunks fake and viral online videos -- even ones that have fooled most critical eyes. Melikdjanian explained in a video last year that the previous floating city could not be a Fata Morgana and was probably a hoax.

"Fata Morgana is an extra shimmery multi-layer type of mirage that occurs in rare atmospheric conditions," Melikdjanian, who goes as "Captain Disillusion," says in the video above. "They can make distant boats seem to hover above the ocean surface, but they can't make a futuristic metropolis manifest out of nowhere. All mirages, including Fata Morgana, can only appear very close to the horizon line. No mirage can extend thousands of feet up."

We're hoping that Captain Disillusion weighs in on the most recent floating city video soon.

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