High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project Transmitter Site, Alaska

This is the site of the powerful radio transmitter and antenna field for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a research project involving the use of the ionosphere (a layer of electrons and ionized particles stretching from around 30 miles above the earth's surface, to as high as 600 miles, depending on solar conditions) as a communications medium for contacting deeply submerged submarines. Construction of the site started in 1997, and it went online in 2007. The Air Force decided to terminate the project in 2014. The HAARP project was sponsored by the Navy's Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force's Phillips Lab. Energy from the high frequency radio transmitters at the site was beamed up to the ionosphere, altering the normal configuration of the electrical streams that naturally occurred there (and which cause the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights phenomenon). These changes in the energy stream could induce low frequency waves, which could penetrate the ocean and the earth. It was thought that if effective, this system could replace the controversial ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) system, currently in use to communicate with submarines. (There are other defense applications associated with this technology, such as probing the earth for subterranean bunkers.) HAARP was said to have been initiated by an ARCO engineer, looking for uses for all the natural gas in the area that was otherwise going to waste. In 2015, the Air Force Research Laboratory announced that it would be transferring ownership of the facility to the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF/GI), in a multi-stage process. Research will now continue there, but on a pay-per-use model. Many conspiracy theorists felt other things were going on there, including weather modification and mind control experiments.