HAARP Gearing Up for its Spring Research Campaign

Alaska’s High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is prepping for its spring research program. The activity will run March 25 – 29. The high-power HF transmitter and huge antenna array located near Gakona, Alaska, now is operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). HAARP Chief Scientist Chris Fallen, KL3WX, said investigations will range from practical to fundamental physical theory.

“Listen on shortwave between 2.7 and 10 MHz (most experiments will be less than 4 or 5 MHz given low daytime max foF2),” Fallen tweeted on March 13. “Tweet your reception [@ctfallen] and mention me or @uafhaarp, so others can follow along!” A “special broadcast” featuring Concordia University Assistant Professor of Intermedia Amanda Dawn Christie will be part of the transmissions. Fallen said Christie “has a special one-hour piece to perform each evening of the campaign at different times.” Currently those are scheduled to be 0030 – 0130 UTC on March 26; 0200 – 0300 UTC on March 27; 0800 – 0900 UTC on March 28, and 0600 – 0700 on March 29, subject to change.

Christie’s GHOSTS IN THE AIR GLOW — ionospheric audio and image mixing with HAARP website offers more information.

Fallen said HAARP operations will generally occur at times within the windows between 2230 and 0300 UTC, and again between 0500 and 0900 UTC each day.

The HAARP spring research program will be Fallen’s last, as he will depart UAF for a new position on March 30.

The fall 2018 HAARP research campaign, which ran from November 29 until December 3, was affected by a November 30 earthquake that shook the Gakona area and interrupted the research activity but had no lasting impact on the facility. “One of the teams relied on ham support in Anchorage, so their remaining experiments were affected,” Fallen told ARRL.

During the fall campaign, scientists investigated radio-enhanced airglow — or “artificial aurora” — including its relation to the natural aurora and its use for measuring high-altitude winds in the thermosphere; the ionospheric generation of very low-frequency (VLF) radio waves, and testing new communications applications of artificial ionosphere plasma structures.

Source:ARRL