People use night vision goggles to look at the night sky during an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) tour in the desert outside Sedona, Arizona. REUTERS/Mike Blake According to some, the world was to end in 2012. Ufology Research has published the report annually since 1989.

In spite of sensational stories, the report claims there is no incontrovertible evidence that some UFO cases have involved contact with extraterrestrial creatures.

The reports can be found here. The average number of sightings has been going up every year for years. The average since 1989 in 2015 was 626.

Over a third of this year's sightings were in Quebec, 35 percent.

For some reason, the number is far above that of previous years, when the Quebec percentage ranged from just 5 to 15 percent. In Montreal alone there were 97 reports. There were 78 in Toronto and 69 in Vancouver. A typical sighting will last about 16 minutes with more than half of the reports being about lights in the sky.

The last few years have seen high numbers of sightings compared with earlier years in which sighting were less than a thousand a year. There are many possible explanations for this including more secret military flights, or better access to reported sightings. Some have even suggested that more people are looking skyward for help with the downturn in the economy. Many of the reports are from pilots, police, and other individuals who should have good observational skills and sound judgment as well.

Ufology is described by Wikipedia as follows: Ufology is the study of reports, visual records, physical evidence, and other phenomena related to unidentified flying objects (UFO). UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years by governments, independent groups, and scientists. However, ufology, as a field, is rejected by modern academia and is considered a pseudoscience. Given that there are many extreme and highly implausible narratives often associated with UFO's the area is often ridiculed by scientists. Yet there are a number of reputable scientists who have an interest in the area.

NASA

Peter Sturrock surveyed 1,365 members of the American Astronomical Society. Sturrock found out that opinions were divided with 23 percent replying "certainly," 30 percent "probably", 27 percent "possibly," 17 percent "probably not," and 3 percent "certainly not," to the question of whether the UFO problem deserves scientific study. In 1980 a survey of 1,800 members of various amateur astronomer associations found that 24 percent responded "yes" to the question: "Have you ever observed an object that resisted your most exhaustive efforts at identification." There have been many studies of UFO's many listed here.

Among the early studies was Project Sign by the US Air Force in 1947-49. The reception of the study illustrates the fact that many regard Ufology as unscientific because it is willing to make assumptions that many feel are unlikely to be the case. Some sightings examined by the Sign were estimated to be of an interplanetary source.