Alaska Gets 'Artificial Aurora' As HAARP Antenna Array Listens Again (hackaday.com)

Freshly Exhumed quotes Hackaday: The famous HAARP antenna array is to be brought back into service for experiments by the University of Alaska. Built in the 1990s for the US Air Force's High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, the array is a 40-acre site containing a phased array of 180 high-frequency antennas and their associated high-power transmitters. Its purpose is to conduct research on charged particles in the upper atmosphere, but that hasn't stopped an array of bizarre conspiracy theories.
A university space physics researcher will actually create an artificial aurora starting Sunday (and continuing through Wednesday) to study how yjr atmosphere affects satellite-to-ground communications, and "observers throughout Alaska will have an opportunity to photograph the phenomenon," according to the University. "Under the right conditions, people can also listen to HAARP radio transmissions from virtually anywhere in the world using an inexpensive shortwave radio."

Comments

Basic Physics

[JBMcB]

It seems most conspiracy theories of this sort involve a lack of understanding of basic physics. Usually it involves assuming that, because light and sound and radio energy all travel in waves that they all behave the same. I see the term "frequencies" thrown around a lot, even when describing non-oscillating direct current circuits and static electricity.

Re:Basic Physics

[Anonymous Coward]

"I see the term "frequencies" thrown around a lot, even when describing non-oscillating direct current circuits and static electricity."

Yes, there's no frequencies when DC is turned on or off, and the super fast spike of an ESD discharge also has no frequencies... eyeroll

Re:A VLF maser?

[Anonymous Coward]

And this is how pseudo-intellectual self-proclaimed skeptics go around belittling those who speak out of curiosity, even though no proper explanation is ever given (because the pseudointellectual is not remotely capable of providing one).

Put enough of them in charge and you've got an entire nation of uneducated chimpanzees.