HAARP ~ What it Really Does

UAF photo by Todd Paris

"The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program facility near Gakona features a 40-acre grid of towers to conduct research on the ionosphere. The facility was built and operated by the U.S. Air Force until 2015, when ownership was transferred to UAF’s Geophysical Institute."

HAARP research attracts conspiracies, misunderstandings

By Elle Fournier

"Even a casual Google search for the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, better known as HAARP, can get really strange, really fast.

HAARP attracts more attention than the average scientific research facility, likely because of its focus on an obscure area of the atmosphere called the ionosphere. This has led to misunderstandings about the purpose of the HAARP facility, said Chris Fallen, UAF research assistant professor in space physics and aeronomy.

HAARP cannot control the weather, contrary to one conspiracy theory. It has too little power and affects a different part of the atmosphere, Fallen said.

Neither can it manipulate our brains, as alleged by another theory. Generally, space physicists focus on regions more than 60 miles above our heads, where HAARP’s radio waves are 100 times weaker than those from mobile phones, he said.

What HAARP can do is heat small regions of the ionosphere and observe the effects. Often HAARP research is conducted during campaigns, where scientists gather and operate the facility’s ionospheric heating instrument to conduct experiments for a few hours each over the course of several days."