'Honeycomb' clouds don't explain Bermuda Triangle mystery

A satellite image showing peculiar hexagonal clouds over the ocean area known as the Bermuda Triangle is prompting speculation about whether they may represent a recurring phenomenon responsible for decades of unexplained disappearances in the region.

The photo appeared in the Science Channel's "What on Earth"? series in a recent episode about the Bermuda Triangle, a loosely defined area bound on the west by the tip of Florida, to the south by Puerto Rico and to the north by Bermuda. In the image, oddly shaped cloud networks hovered above the triangle's western tip, off the coast of Florida, over the Bahamas. Seen from above, the clouds appeared to form six-sided outlines, like honeycombs, with hard edges. They range in size from 20 to 55 miles (32 to 89 kilometers) across, according to the Science Channel.

According to the Science Channel, similar cloud formations in the North Sea near the U.K. have been associated with so-called "air bombs" — powerful downdrafts of air that could overpower and destroy ships and airplanes. But even though the clouds over the North Sea and the Bahamas may look the same, they likely have different causes and interact with the ocean below in different ways, experts say.

The image over the Bahamas was captured in 2002 by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite. The Science Channel described the hexagons as measuring approximately 20 to 55 miles across, and invited comparison to an image of a similar cloud configuration 4,500 miles (7,200 km) away, over the North Sea.

Randy Cerveny, a meteorologist at Arizona State University, told the Science Channel that the hexagonal shapes were signatures of "microbursts," rapid and highly focused blasts of downward-moving air that can generate sea-surface winds reaching nearly 100 mph (161 km/h) and ocean waves towering more than 40 feet (12 meters) high — which could certainly wreak havoc on the sea surface and any vessel on or near it.

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