Who's Playing Hell With
HAARP? Source: Monitoring Times Magazine October 1996
There's always been something a little spooky about
radio waves - a phenomena we can't see, which we control just enough
to make use of, and upon which so much of modern society depends.
Combine these waves with other elements such as aurora and ionosphere-
which we can't see, either, but we're fairly sure are essential for
life on this planet, add words like heating and bombarding, and you
have all that's needed for a humdinger of a Halloween story.
In this MT investigative report, Wayne Mishler sets out
to counter the witch hunts with an objective look at the High
frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP).
The Pentagon's controversial HAARP project has drawn
fire from television broadcasters, writers, publishers and concerned
citizens. Some say it could wipe out worldwide radio communications
and disrupt the ionosphere to the point of destroying aircraft and
missals in-flight. It has been called a star wars weapon in the
making, a devious military plot to control minds and dominate the
world, vandalism in the sky, and the beginning of the end of the
Earth. In some cases the tension has approached panic stages.
What is this monster? is it really capable of doing
these sinister things? To learn the truth, MT launched into an
investigative research project. We talked to people who actually work
with HAARP, The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. We
gathered comments and information from people who live near the
project. We searched the internet for different viewpoints and facts
that we could verify. We talked with the United Nations and
international science communities.
We approached the story with an open mind and asked hard questions. In
this article we share with you what we learned. Our findings may
surprise you.
For years to come, Alaskans will be telling their
grandchildren about the day the caribou walked backwards in
Glennallen, a small town 147 miles northeast of Anchorage. A resident
telephoned that strange story to the Anchorage Daily News, and
identified the cause. It was, of course, that newfangled HAARP
transmitter the government had built down the road at Gakona. They'd
heard it was capable of mind control.
Here was proof: moon walking caribou.
There was, however, a flaw in their theory. "It hadn't
fired. It wasn't operating. To make those [kinds of] conclusions [at
that time] was wrong," admitted one of the HAARP project's strongest
critics, Alaskan resident Nick Begich, son of the former U.S. Rep.
Nick Begich, and co-author of a critical book entitled Angels Don't
Play This HAARP.
Wrong or not, that premature report of dancing caribou
typifies the public's reaction to the HAARP project. "Some people are
very frightened," the Anchorage Daily News reported. And no wonder.
Anyone who hasn't been in a coma or cave the past year has undoubtedly
heard or seen at least some of the hyped press coverage leveled at the
HAARP project. Critics warn that it will irreparably damage the
Earth's magnetic field and possible destroy the ionosphere, leaving
Earthlings to wriggle and fry with no protection from the Sun. The
stories sell books and boost television ratings, and there's no
question that writers and reporters have exploited the obvious
opportunity.
The Anchorage Daily News, which sits on the doorstep of
the HAARP facility and takes phone calls from fearful residents,
expresses concern over "the danger of confusing people" about the
capabilities of this controversial facility.
The Truth about HAARP
HAARP is a government-coined acronym for High frequency
Active Auroral Research Program. It is essentially a system of high
frequency (HF) transmitters and directional antennas known as the
Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI). It is located on a
government-owned 33-acre clearing in a black spruce forest near
Gakona, about 160 miles east of Anchorage. The Gakona site was chosen
primarily because of its location in the auroral zone where
ionospheric fluctuations are prevalent and most conducive to
scientific experiments. The most visible part of the IRI is its huge
antenna array which sits on a gravel pad 1000 feet wide and 1200 feet
long. When completed, the
array will include 180 antenna towers, each 72 feet high. The towers
are mounted at the intersection of gridlines 80 feet apart. At the top
of each tower are two dipole antennas. One of the dipoles is adjusted
to operate in the 2.8 to 7 MHz range; the other in the 7 to 10 MHz
range.
The two dipoles are mounted horizontally like a large
"X" at the top of each tower. Only one of the dipoles on each tower
can be in operation at any given time, depending on the output
frequency. A metal screen stretches between the towers 15 feet off the
ground, forming a continuous reflector for the antennas, During
transmissions, the screen "catches" downward-directed RF energy and
re-directs it upward. This intensifies the beam and helps to protect
people and animals on the ground from intense RF fields when the
transmitters are in operation.
On the ground beneath the antenna array are 30
transmitter shelters. Each shelter houses 12 diesel-powered
transmitters which can be switched to drive either the low-band or
high-band dipoles. Each transmitter is capable of generating 10,000
Watts of RF power. Collectively as a system they can send 3.6 million
Watts of raw RF output to the antennas. The transmitters can be
adjusted in amplitude and phase to focus the RF signal into a narrow
upward beam with about 30 decibels of gain. This produces an effective
radiated power of about 3.6 billion Watts.
Ionospheric heaters around the world have been probing
the ionosphere since the 1950's. But HAARP is different because it has
the capability of steering its RF beam, operating on more frequencies,
and using a greater array of scientific instruments to measure the
results of its experiments.
The beam can be steered or aimed at specific regions of
the ionosphere - the layered portion of the atmosphere that stretches
from about 35 to 500 miles above the Earth. The ionosphere is created
by solar winds striking the Earth's outer atmosphere. The ionosphere
is in a constant state of change, dependent on solar activity. When
conditions are right, the layers of the ionosphere can reflect (or
propagate) radio signals back to Earth, making possible world-wide
radio communications. The layers also absorb some of the signals. How
deeply a signal can penetrate into the ionosphere depends on a number
of factors, including frequency of the signal. In other words,
different layers of the ionosphere can be excited by varying the
frequency of the radio signal.
An RF beam is essentially electromagnetic energy. When
an RF beam strikes the ionosphere, some of the signal is reflected
back to Earth, some penetrates the ionosphere and is lost is space,
and the rest is absorbed. The energy in the beam that is absorbed
changes to heat in the gaseous molecules of the ionosphere. In this
sense, a strong radio signal can be an ionospheric heater. The more
powerful the signal, the greater the heating effect. Scientists
theorize that targeted portions
of the ionosphere can be raised in altitude be increasing the
temperature of the ionic molecules.
HAARP is fundamentally an ionospheric heater with a
steerable beam. In operation it will attempt to excite targeted
portions of the ionosphere so that scientists can measure the results
with test instruments. One of the test instruments is a radar device
that will measure densities of affected electrons, temperatures of
affected electrons and ions, and Doppler velocities in the stimulated
region, and compare them with those in the unstimulated portions of
the ionosphere. The HAARP facility includes a huge inventory of other
sophisticated test instruments, including ELF (extremely low
frequency) and VLF (very low frequency) receivers.
Scientists will attempt to use the IRI to generate ELF
signals by heating the ionosphere. Research at other facilities
indicates that this is possible. These low frequencies are actually
byproducts of the ionospheric heating process. The ELF signals are
created in the HF-excited regions of the ionosphere at an altitude of
about 80 km, and radiate toward Ear. Theoretically, they could be
modulated to carry intelligence. Potential uses include improved
communications
with submarines, and geophysical exploration.
To date, HAARP's transmitters have operated in tests at
power levels far below their capability. Currently the transmitters
are silent. No doubt they will be fired up periodically in additional
tests. But the facility is not scheduled to go into full operation
until sometime in the year 2002.
The need for ionospheric research
The ability to understand, predict, and perhaps even
enhance ionospheric propagation could have profound effects on
world-wide communications. The ionosphere's ability to reflect,
distort and absorb radio signals certainly affects the quality of
civilian and military communications, navigation, surveillance, and
remote sensing systems. Long-range HF radio signals usually "hop" many
times from ground to ionosphere to ground in their journey around the
world. In the process, they are subject to amplitude fading. This is
caused by interference between signals that take different paths from
transmitter to receiver. The effects of the ionosphere are not limited
to HF radio. Satellite links must also pass through the ionosphere en
route to and from the Earth. Because of their typically higher
frequencies, satellite links are especially susceptible to absorption
in the ionosphere.
Because space-based civilian and military systems must
transmit through the ionospheric shield, their quality of performance
depends on monitoring and using to best advantage ionospheric
conditions. But, scientists want to go beyond passive monitoring and
forecasting. They want to find out whether "controlled modification"
of specific portions of the ionosphere can enhance the performance of
these systems. Results from tests by other ionospheric heaters around
the world have suggested that the ionosphere can be controlled.
However, the only way to find out if ionospheric heating can be used
to improve communications is to conduct scientific experiments on a
small scale and monitor the results.
HAARP experiments are intended to stimulated and control
plasma processes in tiny localized regions in the ionosphere, measure
the results, and use this data to improve the planning of space-based
systems in the future.
The military connection
To be sure, the U. S. military has more than a passive
interest in the outcome of HAARP, which could have a vital impact on
U. S. national security. The HAARP site is owned by the U. S.
Department of Defense, and operated under the auspices of the Pentagon
jointly by the Air Force Phillips Laboratory and the Navy's Office of
Research. One area of military interest centers on improving the
performance of existing communications, surveillance, and navigation
systems. But there are other unexplored possibilities that military
officials expect to emerge from HAARP research. These include new
technologies to detect underground objects, communicate to great
depths in the sea and Earth, and generate infrared and optical
emissions. With this power at its fingertips, the world would not have
to guess whether or not offending nations were hoarding underground
nuclear weapons. Military officials could use ionospheric technology
to look deep inside the Earth or its oceans to see for themselves.
Studies of the ionosphere are necessary to unlock the
underlying principles necessary for developing and perfecting such
complex and far-reaching technologies. There is an old military axiom
that says, in essence, that superiority goes to "whoever gets there
fastest with the mostest." If the ionosphere does hold secrets to
enhance military operations, the nation that unlocks them first could
have a global military advantage. The basic mission of the U. S. Navy
and Air Force
is to ensure freedom of movement and commerce on the sea and in the
air for everyone. The ability to prevent domination of the ionosphere
by any individual nation or group of nations is obviously essential to
that mission.
The government claims that HAARP is "a major Arctic
facility for upper atmospheric and solar-terrestrial research."
Officials overseeing the project deny that the facility is designed
for military operations. On the surface there is no question that at
this point it is a research facility intended to answer scientific
questions about the
ionosphere's relationships to the Earth and Sun. Nor is there any
question that much of the research could be used for developing
important new civilian and military technologies.
HAARP's effects on shortwave listening
There may be cases where propagation could be affected
by the IRI. For example, if an SWL in the U.S. is monitoring a radio
broadcast originating overseas with a signal path over Alaska, and the
IRI is operating at the time, it is possible that propagation of the
broadcast could be interrupted. Certainly the IRI transmissions will
be heard on HF transmitters. They will probably be short bursts of
pure CW or possibly modulated CW. "There will be a wide variety of
experiments, each one demanding a different duty cycle, modulation
type," says HAARP engineer Ed Kennedy. "A lot of ionospheric research
is conducted with CW-only type transmissions. This would appear to be
only a carrier signal with no modulation to someone tuning through the
band."
But there may be times when HAARP produces some
interesting listening. "HAARP has been suggested as an element of a
disaster communications network in Alaska. Under these conditions,
there might be voice modulation. But there are no experiments planned
with voice," Kennedy explains.
The HAARP antenna array is essentially a directional
high-gain antenna. As with any antenna of this type, there will be a
primary lobe accompanied by side lobes of lesser strength. These side
lobes could strike the ionosphere at angles that would allow them to
be reflected rather than absorbed by the ionosphere. In such a case,
the side lobes could be propagated like ordinary HF radio
transmissions. If so, they could be detected around the world.
"Since the predominate transmission direction is
straight up, the area where we might expect {radio] interference is in
Alaska," says Kennedy. "We measured signal strengths [while testing]
the program. Using computer controlled spectrum analyzers, we found
few occasions when the signal caused interference. The Alaskan
ionosphere is very bad [for radio propagation] as most Alaskan hams
will testify."
The HAARP program maintains a special telephone line
(907) 822-5497 dedicated to receiving calls of suspected radio
frequency interference (RFI). When the IRI is in operation, this
telephone number rings in the control room and a person will answer
it. When the facility is shut down, the phone is connected to an
answering machine with an announcement that no testing is being
conducted. We called this number in preparing this article and reached
the answering machine.
A committee with local and national representatives has
been formed to review RFI complaints. The first meeting was held last
year in Glennallen. There are representatives from the local
community, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, ALASCOM
(telephone service), Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., American Radio
Relay League, Coast
Guard, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Alaska Fish and Game Department, HAARP environmental liaison
officer and operations staff, the National Park Service, Naval
Research Laboratory, and Alaska Military Command.
In addition to reviewing RFI complaints, these
representatives and others will oversee the future operations of the
HAARP facility within their respective fields of expertise. But
critics say this is not enough.
The HAARP controversy
The controversy surrounding HAARP stems primarily from
its otential for altering and exploiting the ionosphere for military
purposes. The controversy was undoubtedly intensified during the
autumn of 1995 by the publishings of Begich's book and a Popular
Science magazine article entitled Mystery in Alaska. Both portrayed
HAARP as a dangerous experiment with a devious military agenda. The
highly critical article appeared in the September 1995 edition of
Popular Science. It portrayed HAARP as having a "secret agenda" with
exotic military goals. It explains in vivid detail how the facility
would achieve these goals, alluding to the Eastlund papers (described
below). The article predicts that HAARP will be able to turn the
ionosphere into a system of virtual mirrors and lenses capable of
reflecting its powerful beam back toward Earth, and even concentrating
its power like a magnifying glass focuses sun rays. But we found
nothing secret about HAARP. The project is not classified. Its
planning, construction, and operational theory are matters of public
record. The facility is open to public inspection.
Angels Don't Play This HAARP, was co-authored by Begich
and Jeanne Manning of Vancouver, British Columbia. The book warns that
HAARP is intended to "massively disturb" parts of the atmosphere. The
transmissions, Begich says, could create an electromagnetic pulse
similar to that of a nuclear explosion which could destroy unprotected
communications equipment around the world. He accuses the military of
trying to create a new surveillance technology. Both authors say
independent scientists have told them that HAARP, by deliberately
altering the ionosphere, could affect people's moods and mental
functions because the frequencies are the same as human brain waves.
Begich and many other critics say that HAARP is currently conducting
experiments.
"The military insists that all of this is safe," Begich
says, "but we have shown the risks through careful research involving
hundreds of source documents. [Our book] contains over 350 footnotes
detailing the source of each significant fact. Questions have arisen
in the research. Could these manmade disturbances trigger destructive
weather? What will it do to our health? To salmon or other species
which rely on the naturally-occurring geomagnetic fields for
direction?
The questions stir emotions and sell books. But on close
scrutiny the veil of criticism becomes thin and you see that the
criticism of HAARP is based more on fantasy than reality. This is
because Begich, Manning and others compare HAARP to a 1980's plan by
an ARCO physicist, Bernard Eastlund, to build a transmitter similar
to, but many times larger and more powerful than the HAARP facility.
This transmitter was
never built. It exists only on paper.
The Eastlund proposal
Like HAARP, Eastlund's transmitters would have been
located in Alaska, and would have functioned as an ionospheric heater.
But the Eastlund project would have been more than 30,000 times larger
than HAARP with power to distort the upper atmosphere through brute
force. His transmitter and antenna site would have covered 1600 square
miles (more than a million acres.) "You can [with my plan] lift part
of the upper atmosphere," Eastlund said. "You can make it move, do
things
with it." Eastlund described how he could "surgically" distort the
ionosphere to disrupt global communications. He told how he could
generate enough turbulence in the ionosphere to destroy middles in
flight. By lifting and moving regions of the ionosphere, Eastlund
theorized that he could redirect the jet stream to alter global
weather patterns, incinerate airborne pollution, and repair the ozone
layer. Eastlund patented the processes that he envisioned for his
Frankenstein-like creation. The patent for altering the Earth's
atmosphere reportedly was sealed in secrecy by the government. The
device supposedly could have generated one watt of heat per cubic
centimeter in the ionosphere, more than a million times the power that
had ever been beamed skyward before. Critics feared the effects that
this could have on the Earth and its inhabitants. Excerpts from the
patent underscored their concern. For example, according to the
patent, Eastlund's technology theoretically could:
Control weather by altering upper atmosphere wind
patterns. Change molecular compositions of specific regions of the
Earth's atmosphere, increasing levels of desired elements, such as
ozone. Beam electrical power directly from a power plant in the Alaska
gas fields to consumers without using power lines - wireless power
transmission. Confuse aircraft and missile guidance systems. Destroy
high altitude missiles in flight.
Knock out "enemy" radio communications without affecting "friendly"
communications. Create electromagnetic pulses capable of destroying
sensitive electronic equipment, similar to those produced by nuclear
explosions. Because of similarities between Eastlund's plan and the
HAARP facility, critics put them in the same category. They warn that
HAARP
is the first of many steps the government will take toward building
Eastlund's device. Many accuse the government of lying about the
startup date of HAARP and about the power level at which it will be
operated. Some say the facility is in full operation and that its
power levels are much greater than the government will admit. We
checked. At this writing, the only people at the HAARP site was a
caretaker and a few technicians working on the antennas. The
transmitters were not operating.
HAARP is small part of worldwide study
Critics warn that HAARP is the largest device of its
kind, operating with inadequate external oversight, and therefore a
threat to mankind. But we've learned that in the grand scheme of
things HAARP is a relatively small element of a worldwide effort to
probe and study the Earth's outer atmosphere. There are a number of
facilities similar to HAARP operating unnoticed around the world.
According to a U. S.
government report, at least one of these facilities, operated by the
International Radio Observatory in Sweden, is many times more powerful
than HAARP will be when in full operation in the year 2002. The
Swedish facility, according to the report, transmits 10 megawatts with
an antenna gain of almost 35 decibels. This would produce an ERP of
nearly 32 billion watts. This facility reportedly has been operating
with little attention in the press. Such high RF power levels stagger
man's imagination. But in comparison with the Sun, which creates and
regulates the ionosphere, they are minuscule. HAARP engineers maintain
that any source of energy large enough to destroy or permanently
damage the ionosphere would have to be greater than the sun itself.
International Space Law
The United Nations regulates through international space
law what any member nation or group of member nations can do in space.
This law is based on five treaties and four sets of principals to
which members have agreed. The UN's interest in peaceful use of space
was first expressed in 1957, soon after the launching of Russia's
Sputnik-1. This interest has grown steadily with the development of
space technology. The focal
point of UN action is the General Assembly's Committee on the Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space, set up in 1959.
In 1966, the Committee and the General Assembly
negotiated the Outer Space Treaty, which went into effect in 1968 and
has been ratified by 91 countries. The basic principles contained in
this Treaty were later elaborated by the Committee in five other legal
instruments: the astronaut rescue agreement (1967), the liability
convention (1971), the registration (of launched objects) convention
(1974), and the Moon agreement (1979). The Committee has also
negotiated direct broadcasting principles (1982), remote sensing
principles (1986), and
principles on the use of nuclear power sources (1993).
The Outer Space Treaty itself provides that space
exploration will be carried out for the benefit of all countries. It
seeks to maintain space as the province of all mankind, free for
exploration and use by all nations and not subject to national
appropriation. This would seem to preclude the U.S. or any other
member nation from controlling or
manipulating the ionosphere to the detriment of the world.
One of the Committee's special interests has been remote
sensing of the Earth. This could be extrapolated to include any
attempts to "X-ray" the Earth with ELF radio waves, which is one
outcry from HAARP critics. ELF waves generated by HAARP in the
ionoshpere will penetrate the Earth and its inhabitants. Critics fear
this will interfere with human brain waves and possibly damage the
Earth. But this type of activity is regulated by international law.
The first UN conference on the exploration and use of
space, held in Vienna in 1968, called for increased international
cooperation. A new program was created in 1970 to help member nations
develop space technology. Additional programs were developed during
the 1970s addressing telecommunications, weather forecasting, disaster
warning and relief, environmental monitoring, and remote sensing for
agriculture, forestry, geology, cartography, oceanography, and other
uses.
The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs follows scientific
and technical developments relating to space technology. It collects
and provides technical information. It also advises member nations on
matters of space development.
For anyone interested in space law, there are several
books and collections of reports available from two different sources.
One of the sources is Editions Frontiers, B.P.33,91 192 Gif sur Yvette
Cedex, telephone (331) 69 28 51 35, fax (33 1) 69 28 86 59. The other
source is Kaigai Publications Ltd, Tokyo International, P.O. Box 5020,
Tokyo 100-31 Japan, fax 03 3292 4278. The titles available include
Space Debris and the Corpus luris Spatialis, International Space Law
in the Making, The United Nations Space Treaties Analysed, and The
Protection
of Astronomical and Geophysical Sites.
International studies of Sun and Earth
A common link between HAARP and international studies is
that they are concerned with the Sun's impact on the Earth's
atmosphere and environment. Ionspheric heaters such as HAARP probe and
study the ionosphere from Earth. Others scrutinize solar phenomena
from outer space. One such study is being conducted from a relatively
new solar space observatory, called Soho, a joint project of the
European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA).
Soho is a project of international cooperation between
ESA and NASA. The spacecraft was built in Europe and equipped with
instruments by scientists on both sides of the Atlantic. NASA launched
Soho on December 2, 1995, and provides ground support from an
operations center near Washington. Soho arrived at its vantage point -
1.5 million kilometers above Earth - in February of this year. It was
formally commissioned on April 16. The international space community
expects many years of service from it.
Scientists from several experimental teams are using
Soho to explore the Sun's from its innards to its outer atmosphere
(corona), where temperatures are measured in millions of degrees.
Images obtained via Soho's visible light coronagraph LASCO (a
telescope used to observe the Sun's corona) show the Sun releasing
billions of tons of gas into the solar system. Such events disturb the
whole system and can affect the Earth's own environment.
The Sun's flames are literally lapping at the Earth's
doorstep. this generates a space wind of icons, electrons, and protons
which reach Earth at speeds of 1.5 to 3 million kilometers per hour.
The only protection that stands between us and this onslaught is the
Earth's magnetosphere - a distant magnetic, ionized extension of our
atmosphere which slows and deflects the stream of particles emitted by
the sun.
"By the end of the [Soho] mission we shall know the Sun
far better than we do now," says Roger Bonnet, ESA director of
science. "And we shall be able to comment with much more confidence on
important but puzzling aspects of solar behavior that affect our lives
on the Earth, whether in short-lived magnetic storms or long-lasting
changes of climate."
Another project, called the Cluster, would have given
international scientists specific data about the Sun's interaction
with the Earth's outer atmosphere, if the experiment had not perished
in the failed launch of Ariane - 501 in June 1996. A cluster of four
special satellites would have taken readings from different vantage
points in space to give scientists a three-dimensional view of the
phenomena that occur where the solar wind strikes the near-Earth
environment.
Cluster would have gathered information about the
magnetic storms, electric currents, and particle accelerations that
take place in the space surrounding Earth. These phenomena are
believed to play a role in the aurora in the polar regions, power
outages (brown-outs), breakdowns in telecommunications systems,
satellite malfunctions, and possibly even changes in Earth's climates.
There is little doubt that the world's study of the
stormy relationship between the Sun and Earth will continue on a
cooperative basis. Ionospheric heaters, including HAARP, will
contribute to that information base. In the process, science will be
advanced and new technologies developed. That's life. Critics are not
likely to slow the process. Like it or not, some of these technologies
will probably be put to military use. Whether that is good or bad for
the Free World depends on whose military puts puts them to use
first.
by Wayne Mishler
An MT Investigative Report
http://server5550.itd.nrl.navy.mil/projects/haarp/news/mt1096.html