HAARP Presentation Summary:
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program “HAARP”, an Engineering Description and Scientific Review
Steve Floyd, Chief Engineer for HAARP, will present a fascinating look at this unique Radio Science facility, recognized as a highly successful research site and design project overcoming many unique and unusual radio engineering design challenges. This presentation will provide an inside view describing how the HAARP systems are designed, constructed, installed, and operated.
The HAARP Research facility is a state-of-the-art ionospheric research and radio science project located in Alaska and was jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Designed and built by a Washington, DC based APTI/BAE Systems team, its primary purpose is to analyze the Earth’s ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing new ionospheric enhancement and communication technologies, and to support Radio Science research for all types of radio communications and surveillance technologies.
The HAARP facility was built in three stages starting in 1993, scientific research operations began in 1996, and the facility was completed in 2007. In 2015, the HAARP program and all assets were officially transferred to the University of Alaska (UAF), and UAF continues to operate the facility today.
The most prominent instrument at the HAARP Research Facility is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a 180-antenna tower phased array, with 180 individual 20 kW each radio transmitter systems, operating in the high frequency (HF) band with an effective radiated power of 5 Gigawatts. The HAARP IRI is recognized as one of the highest-powered HF transmitting systems in the world and is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere for scientific study. Many additional state-of-the-art radio frequency and optics transmitting and receiving systems are operating at the facility.
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Dan Gealt holds an Extra Class Ham license (of course, with a weather-related call sign: WX2P) and is a volunteer examiner, former president of Warren County Radio Club, Skywarn spotter, a National Weather Service Cooperative Observer, a reporter on the Capital District Weather Net (every day of the year on the Prospect Repeater system), a RACES and ARES member and a radio communications volunteer for the Warren County Office of Emergency Services.