HAARP is a scientific endeavor aimed at studying the properties and behavior of the ionosphere, with particular emphasis on being able to understand and use it to enhance communications and surveillance systems for both civilian and defense purposes.

The HAARP program is committed to developing a world class ionospheric research facility consisting of:

The ionospheric research instrument (IRI), a high power transmitter facility operating in the HF frequency range. The IRI will be used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere for scientific study.

Diagnostic instruments that will be used to observe the physical processes that occur in the excited region.

Observation of the processes resulting from the use of the IRI in a controlled manner will allow scientists to better understand processes that occur continuously under the natural stimulation of the sun.

In addition, diagnostics installed at the HAARP facility will be useful for a variety of other reseach purposes including the study of global warming and ozone depletion.

The September 1995 issue of Popular Science contained a story about the HAARP project, written by Mark Farmer. This article contained numerous misrepresentations including a particularly misleading statement attributed to the FAA, contained in the article's introduction. The following article, which appeared in the January 1996 issue of FAA Flyer addresses that misstatement.

The September issue of Popular Science contained a mistaken warning to pilots. It had this to say about the HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project) near Gulkana: "It's existence first surfaced publicly in Alaska in 1993, when the FAA began instructing pilots to avoid HAARP's electromagnetic radiation."

In fact, the FAA has never issued any warning concerning this facility, nor is there any reason for pilots to modify their flight plans because of the project. To date only a fraction of the final facility configuration is built, and that only to evaluate proof-of-concept. We will not see a final configuration facility for many years, and the existing test facility poses no threat to anyone. The FAA maintains a representative on the HAARP interference coordination committee. This committee exists to assure that no interference to communications and aeronautical navigation results from any testing or operation of the facility now or in the future. The committee also works to confirm that the project produces no harmful radiation to man or animal. Safety remains a paramount objective of the project.

We may be hearing a lot about HAARP in the months to come, but because the subject is getting sensational treatment on radio and in print, it may be a challenge to separate science fact from science fiction.

Consider the front-page headline in the September issue of Popular Science magazine about HAARP: "Exclusive: The Secret Agenda of a Military Project in Alaska."

HAARP stands for High frequency Active Auroral Research Program. It is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and the US Air Force and is being run by the Phillips Laboratory of Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts.

The project features a powerful radio transmitter near Gakona, 200 miles southeast of Fairbanks, which is to direct a narrowly focused radio beam straight up into the ionosphere.

An Environmental Impact Statement was completed before the project started and the early work involved nine universities including UAF, as well as other institutions. The plan is to use a radio transmitter, one that is about as powerful as some transmitters used by the Voice of America, to heat small parts of the ionosphere.

Brent Watkins, a geophysics professor at the UAF Geophysical Institute, compared it to placing a one-kilowatt heater in the Yukon River. He said it will not change the overall dynamics of the ionosphere.

Driving this research is the fact that most of the frequency ranges used for radio communications have been allocated and it is hard to find space for new frequencies. Researchers are looking at using lower frequencies [Extremely Low Frequencies, no doubt -d4], but the catch is that those would require antennas hundreds of miles long.

As an alternative, scientists are proposing that the aurora be used an antenna. This would be done by inducing a slight modulation in the aurora with the radio beam from HAARP.

A transmitter that also directs a beam into the ionosphere, and which has about one-quarter or less of the power of HAARP, is located off 25 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road. The HIPAS facility, operated by UCLA, has been used for the past 12 years without a problem.

There have been articles in various publications over the past year that claimed HAARP is a "mysterious" and "secret" project. "Project Censored" said HAARP was one of the top 10 under- reported news stories of 1994 in the US.

A lot of the speculation about sinister motives seems to be based on "Star Wars" defense theories, some of them from a scientist who hasn't been connected with HAARP for eight years.

HAARP has also been talked about on Art Bell's nationally syndicated radio show, where the discussion often turns to flying saucers and human abductions by aliens. [Note the classic Saganesque debunking strategy here -d4]

Alaskan Nick Begich Jr., who recently got a doctorate in the study of alternative medicine from a school based in Sri Lanka, has written and published a new book in which he alleges that HAARP could lead to "global vandalism" and affect people's " mental functions." [Bingo -d4]

Syun Akasofu, director of the Geophysical Institute, said the electric power in the aurora is hundreds of thousands of times stronger than that produced by HAARP.

The most outlandish charges about HAARP are that it is designed to disrupt the human brain, jam all communications systems, change weather patterns over a large area, interfere with wildlife migration, harm people's health and unnaturally impact the Earth's upper atmosphere. [That 'bout sums it up -d4]

These and other claims appear to be based on speculation about what might happen if a project 1,000 times more powerful than HAARP is ever built.

That seems to be in the realm of science fiction.

Dermot Cole is a News-Miner columnist.

The HAARP site on the Tok Road held a coffee and Open House last weekend, and over 80 people logged in their names in the visitor guest book. Some were just curious. Others were concerned. There were people there from the immediate Gakona area, from the Copper Valley, and from other parts of the state. Paul Anthoney (right) came up from Anchorage. He is shown talking with HAARP Project Manager John Heckscher. Anthoney was carrying a copy of a book by Nick Begich called "Angels Don't Play This HAARP." Begich claims in the book that the HAARP project is "the most incredible weapon yet devised." When he first arrived, Paul Anthoney seemed to be speaking for more than one person there when he told the Journal, "I'm concerned about concentration camps in America...You don't have to be a scientist to understand the implications of this. By what authority can these experiments be conducted that have such far-reaching effects..." Some of the other visitors expressed other concerns, including fears of weather control, concerns about somehow "amplifying" energy, fears of injuring the ionosphere, and concerns that the project is somehow "a decoy." Several even expressed a fear the HAARP will be used for mind control. After several hours of looking around, and taking videos and photographs, Anthoney said, "This is a good tour today. I think the open house is a good first step."

People came to see the HAARP project's array of antennas at the site on the Tok Road in Gakona. The idea of the project is to scientifically measure what happens to the ionosphere when the conditions normal to an aurora are duplicated on a smaller scale by the projects scientists. Although the antenna array looks impressive, it doesn't come close to an actual aurora. "If we have an aurora here (during one of the study periods) we have to pack up and go home," commented Project Manager John Heckscher. The day after the Open House, Glennallen High School science teacher Gene Crow brought his science class to the facility, which they toured for 3 hours. John Rasmussen of HAARP told the Journal he intends to try to get Neil Brown, semi-retired director or the Poker Flat Rocket Range together with the science students.

Bill Huhn came from Fairbanks to see the Gakona facility. He's facility manager at a similar site outside of Fairbanks, where he has worked 8 years. When asked if the Fairbanks site was a secret military project, he said, "It's silliness. We broadcast at 2.85 megahertz. Only a little bit higher than a regular AM station. You have tens of hundreds of thousands of radio stations broadcasting music. Why is that controlling people's minds? I've got a mind. I don't want it controlled."

This is a chart [not included here -d4] that was inside a HAARP project building. It shows (from right to left) the disturbance caused by a transmission from HAARP, and how it is charted. The flat line at the bottom shows how "The Ionosphere quickly returns to normal after the transmitter goes off." The HAARP project is the subject of much recent controversy, and is featured in Popular Science, Jane's Defense Weekly, and a number of alternative publications. Staff from "We Alaskans" a Sunday magazine of the Anchorage Daily News, visited the site Sunday. A group from Fox TV's show, "Sightings", were due to visit Monday.

In spite of all the antennas, the HAARP project is producing a field that is rivaled by the one being put out by KCAM in Glennallen, says Ed Kennedy (right) from the Naval Research Lab. Kennedy said he checked KCAM's field strength from his room at the Caribou Hotel. Closer to the KCAM tower, he also checked it in the high school parking lot. (He added that KCAM's field strengths are not unusually high for a radio station). The field produced by HAARP as monitored on the nearby Tok Cutoff is less than the field strength of KCAM at the high school, he said. Kennedy told visitors, "Anything we can do is really minuscule, compared to the sun." He said the main object of the HAARP facility was to 'make something happen' in the ionosphere that could be scientifically monitored by instruments, while observations were being made. But, he said, "The ionosphere is being constantly (perturbed) by the sun," and "We can't turn the sun off."

Professor Michael Kelley, of Cornell, who is known internationally for his studies of the ionosphere, talked with visitors at the HAARP site. He said the main purpose of the project was to study physics in a controlled situation. "My university doesn't allow secret research. If this was a secret research project, I wouldn't be allowed here," he said. The HAARP project has a page on the Internet, for people who would like to read about it, he said. By the time the Open House was drawing to a close, and Kelley had talked to with over 80 visitors, he told the Journal, "It's been great. I met a lot of interesting people." One thing he liked about the HAARP facility, which uses a site that was originally planned for a Cold War military antenna system, is that it turns "swords into ploughshares," he said. "It was going to be a radar site overlooking the Soviet Union." Kelley implied there was an ironic twist in using the Backscatter site for Ionospheric study, saying that "mankind will benefit much more," through the current studies. "I wouldn't want to be involved in weapons research. I don't do military surveillance," he told the Journal.

Visitors at the HAARP site Open House milled around under the 48 antenna towers that are now in place and partly visible in this photo. They talked with scientists about their concerns, and heard explanations of the project.

Scientists who work there say that the HAARP SITE is an ideal place to study the ionosphere because of its location. The researchers passed out pamphlets showing a large number of studies performed by scientists from all over the US, and a number of universities, including University of Alaska, Stanford, Boston College, and University of Maryland. Scientists come and go at the site, conducting various studies. One upcoming study will be of the ozone layer. This machine monitors normal background noise. The spike on the right is KCHU radio.

Send questions or suggestions via e-mail to kennedy@itd.nrl.navy.mil