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Background on the HAARP Project
By Rosalie Bertell
November 5, 1996
* Project Argus (1958)
* Project Starfish (1962)
* SPS: Solar Power Satellite Project (1968)
* Saturn V Rocket (1975)
* SPS Military Implications (1978)
* Orbit Maneuvering System (1981)
* Innovative Shuttle Experiments (1985)
* Mighty Oaks (1986)
* Desert Storm (1991)
* High Frequency Active Auroral Research
Program HAARP (1993)
* Poker Flat Rocket Launch (1968 to Present)
* Conclusions
* Further References
Military interest in space became intense during and after World
War II because of the introduction of rocket science, the
companion to nuclear technology. The early versions include the
buzz bomb and guided missiles. They were thought of as potential
carriers of both nuclear and conventional bombs.
Rocket technology and nuclear weapon technology developed
simultaneously between 1945 and 1963. During this time of
intensive atmospheric nuclear testing, explosions at various
levels above and below the surface of the earth were tried. Some
of the now familiar descriptions of the earth's protective
atmosphere, such as the existence of the Van Allen belts, were
based on information gained through stratospheric and ionospheric
experimentation.
> The earth's atmosphere consists of the troposphere, from sea
level to about 16 km above the earth's surface; the stratosphere
(which contains the ozone level) which extends from about the 16
to 48 km above the earth; and the ionosphere which extends from 48
km to over 50,000 km above the surface of the earth.
The earth's protective atmosphere or "skin" extends beyond 3,200
km above sea level to the large magnetic fields, called the Van
Allen Belts, which can capture the charged particles sprayed
through the cosmos by the solar and galactic winds. These belts
were discovered in 1958 during the first weeks of the operation of
America's first satellite, Explorer I. They appear to contain
charged particles trapped in the earth's gravity and magnetic
fields. Primary galactic cosmic rays enter the solar system from
interstellar space, and are made up of protons with energies above
100 MeV, extending up to astronomically high energies. They make
up about 10% of the high energy rays. Solar rays are generally of
lower energy, below 20 MeV (which is still high energy in earth
terms). These high energy particles are affected by the earth's
magnetic field and by geomagnetic latitude (distance above or
below the geomagnetic equator). The flux density of low energy
protons at the top of the atmosphere is normally greater at the
poles than at the equator. The density also varies with solar
activity, a minimum when solar flares are at a maximum.
The Van Allen belts capture charged particles (protons, electrons
and alpha particles) and these spiral along the magnetic force
lines toward the polar regions where the force lines converge.
They are reflected back and forth between the magnetic force lines
near the poles. The lower Van Allen Belt is about 7700 km above
the earth's surface, and the outer Van Allen Belt is about 51,500
km above the surface. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
the Van Allen belts are most intense along the equator, and
effectively absent over the poles. They dip to 400 km over the
South Atlantic Ocean, and are about 1,000 km high over the Central
Pacific Ocean. In the lower Van Allen Belt, the proton intensity
is about 20,000 particles with energy above 30 MeV per second per
square centimetre. Electrons reach a maximum energy of 1 MeV, and
their intensity has a maximum of 100 million per second per square
centimetre. In the outer Belt, proton energy averages only 1 MeV.
For comparison, most charged particles discharged in a nuclear
explosion are range between 0.3 and 3 MeV, while diagnostic
medical X-ray has peak voltage around 0.5 MeV.
Project Argus (1958)
Between August and September 1958, the US Navy exploded three
fission type nuclear bombs 480 km above the South Atlantic Ocean,
in the part of the lower Van Allen Belt closest to the earth's
surface. In addition, two hydrogen bombs were detonated 160 km
over Johnston Island in the Pacific. This was called, by the
military, "the biggest scientific experiment ever undertaken". It
was designed by the US Department of Defence and the US Atomic
Energy Commission, under the code name Project Argus. The purpose
appears to be to assess the impact of high altitude nuclear
explosions on radio transmission and radar operations because of
the electro-magnetic pulse (EMP), and to increase understanding of
the geomagnetic field and the behaviour of the charged particles
in it.
This gigantic experiment created new (inner) magnetic radiation
belts encompassing almost the whole earth, and injected sufficient
electrons and other energetic particles into the ionosphere to
cause world wide effects. The electrons travelled back and forth
along magnetic force lines, causing an artificial "aurora" when
striking the atmosphere near the North Pole.
US Military planed to create a "telecommunications shield" in the
ionosphere, reported in 13-20 August 1961, Keesings Historisch
Archief (K.H.A.). This shield would be created "in the ionosphere
at 3,000 km height, by bringing into orbit 350,000 million copper
needles, each 2-4 cm long (total weight 16 kg), forming a belt 10
km thick and 40 km wide, the needles spaced about 100 m apart."
This was designed to replace the ionosphere "because
telecommunications are impaired by magnetic storms and solar
flares". The US planned to add to the number of copper needles if
the experiment proved to be successful. This plan was strongly
opposed by the International Union of Astronomers.
Project Starfish (1962)
On 9 July 1962, the US began a further series of experiments with
the ionosphere. From their description: "one kiloton device, at a
height of 60 km and one megaton and one multi-megaton, at several
hundred kilometres height" (K.H.A., 29 June 1962). These tests
seriously disturbed the lower Van Allen Belt, substantially
altering its shape and intensity. "In this experiment the inner
Van Allen Belt will be practically destroyed for a period of time;
particles from the Belt will be transported to the atmosphere. It
is anticipated that the earth's magnetic field will be disturbed
over long distances for several hours, preventing radio
communication. The explosion in the inner radiation belt will
create an artificial dome of polar light that will be visible from
Los Angeles."(K.H.A. 11 May 1962). A Fijian Sailor, present at
this nuclear explosion told me that the whole sky was on fire and
he thought it would be the end of the world. This was the
experiment which called forth the strong protest of the Queen's
Astronomer, Sir Martin Ryle in the UK.
"The ionosphere (according to the understanding at that time) that
part of the atmosphere between 65 and 80 km and 280-320 km height,
will be disrupted by mechanical forces caused by the pressure wave
following the explosion. At the same time, large quantities of
ionizing radiation will be released, further ionizing the gaseous
components of the atmosphere at this height. This ionization
effect is strengthened by the radiation from the fission products.
. . . The lower Van Allen Belt, consisting of charged particles
that move along the geomagnetic field lines . . . will similarly
be disrupted. As a result of the explosion, this field will be
locally destroyed, while countless new electrons will be
introduced into the lower belt." (K.H.A. 11 May 1962)
"On 19 July . . . NASA announced that as a consequence of the high
altitude nuclear test of July 9, a new radiation belt had been
formed, stretching from a height of about 400 km to 1600 km; it
can be seen as a temporary extension of the lower Van Allen Belt."
(K.H.A. 5 August 1962)
As explained in the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Starfish made a
much wider belt (than Project Argus) that extends from low
altitude out past L=3 (i.e. three earth radiuses or about 13,000
km above the surface of the earth)" Later in 1962, the USSR
undertook similar planetary experiments, creating three new
radiation belts between 7,000 and 13,000 km above the earth.
According to the Encyclopaedia, the electron fluxes in the lower
Van Allen Belt have changed markedly since the 1962 high-altitude
nuclear explosions by the US and USSR, never returning to their
former state. According to American scientists, it could take many
hundreds of years for the Van Allen Belts to restabilise at their
normal levels.
(Research done by: Nigel Harle, Borderland Archives,
Cortenbachstraat 32, 6136 CH Sittard, Netherlands.)
SPS: Solar Power Satellite Project (1968)
In 1968 the US military proposed Solar Powered Satellites in
geostationary orbit some 40,000 km above the earth, which would
intercept solar radiation using solar cells on satellites and
transmit it via a microwave beam to receiving antennas, called
rectennas, on earth. The US Congress mandated the Department of
Energy and NASA to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment on
this project, to be completed by June 1980, and costing $25
Million. This project was designed to construct 60 Solar Powered
Satellites over a thirty year period at a cost between $500 and
$800 thousand million (in 1968 dollars), providing 10% of the US
energy needs in the year 2025 at a cost of $3000 per kW. At that
time, the project cost was two to three times larger than the
whole Department of Energy budget, and the projected cost of the
electricity was well above the cost of most conventional energy
sources. The rectenna sites on earth were expected to take up to
145 square kilometres of land, and would preclude habitation by
any humans, animals or even vegetation. Each Satellite was to be
the size of Manhattan Island.
Saturn V Rocket (1975)
Due to a malfunction, the Saturn V Rocket burned unusually high in
the atmosphere, above 300 km. This burn produced "a large
ionospheric hole" (Mendillo, M. Et al., Science 187,343, 1975).
The disturbance reduced the total electron content more than 60%
over an area 1,000 km in radius, and lasted for several hours. It
prevented all telecommunications over a large area of the Atlantic
Ocean. The phenomenon was apparently caused by a reaction between
the exhaust gases and ionospheric oxygen ions. The reaction
emitted a 6300 A airglow. Between 1975 and 1981 NASA and the US
Military began to design ways to test this new phenomena through
deliberate experimentation with the ionosphere.
SPS Military Implications (1978)
Early review of the Solar Powered Satellite Project began in
around 1978, and I was on the review panel. Although this was
proposed as an energy program, it had significant military
implications. One of the most significant, first pointed out by
Michael J. Ozeroff, was the possibility of developing a satellite
borne beam weapon for anti-ballistic missile (ABM) use. The
satellites were to be in geosynchronous orbits, each providing an
excellent vantage point from which an entire hemisphere can be
surveyed continuously. It was speculated that a high energy laser
beam could function as a thermal weapon to disable or destroy
enemy missiles. There was some discussion of electron weapon
beams, through the use of a laser beam to preheat a path for the
following electron beam.
The SPS was also described as a psychological and anti-personnel
weapon, which could be directed toward an enemy. If the main
microwave beam was redirected away from its rectenna, toward enemy
personnel, it could use an infrared radiation wavelength
(invisible) as an anti-personnel weapon. It might also be possible
to transmit high enough energy to ignite combustible materials.
Laser beam power relays could be made from the SPS satellite to
other satellites or platforms, for example aircraft, for military
purposes. One application might be a laser powered turbofan engine
which would receive the laser beam directly in its combustion
chamber, producing the required high temperature gas for its
cruising operation. This would allow unlimited on-station cruise
time. As a psychological weapon, the SPS was capable of causing
general panic.
The SPS would be able to transmit power to remote military
operations anywhere needed on earth. The manned platform of the
SPS would provide surveillance and early warning capability, and
ELF linkage to submarines. It would also provide the capability of
jamming enemy communications. The potential for jamming and
creating communications is significant. The SPS was also capable
of causing physical changes in the ionosphere.
President Carter approved the SPS Project and gave it a go-ahead,
in spite of the reservation which many reviewers, myself included,
expressed. Fortunately, it was so expensive, exceeding the entire
Department of Energy budget, that funding was denied by the
Congress. I approached the United Nations Committee on Disarmament
on this project, but was told that as long as the program was
called Solar Energy by the United States, it could not be
considered a weapons project. The same project resurfaced in the
US under President Reagan, moved to the much larger budget of the
Department of Defence, and called Star Wars. Since this is more
recent history, I will not discuss the debate which raged over
this phase of the plan.
By 1978, it was apparent to the US Military that communications in
a nuclear hostile environment would not be possible using
traditional methods of radio and television technology (Jane's
Military Communications 1978). By 1982, GTE Sylvania (Needham
Heights, Massachusetts), had developed a command control
electronic sub-system for the US Air Force's Ground Launch Cruise
Missiles (GLCM) that would enable military commanders to monitor
and control the missile prior to launch both in hostile and
non-hostile environments. The system contains six radio
subsystems, created with visible light using a dark beam (not
visible), resistant to the disruptions experienced by radio and
television. Dark beams contribute to the formation of energetic
plasma in the atmosphere. This plasma can become visible as smog
or fog. Some has a different charge than the sun's energy, and
accumulates in places where the sun's energy is absent, like the
polar regions in the winter. When the polar spring occurs, the sun
appears and repels this plasma, contributing to holes in the ozone
layer. This military system is called: Ground Wave Emergency
Network (GWEN). (See The SECOM II Communication System, by Wayne
Olsen, SAND 78-0391, Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico,
April 1978). This innovative emergency radio system was apparently
never implimented in Europe, and exists only in North America.
Orbit Maneuvering System (1981)
Part of the plan to build the SPS space platforms was the demand
for reusable space shuttles, since they could not afford to keep
discarding rockets. The NASA Spacelab 3 Mission of the Space
Shuttle made, in 1981, "a series of passes over a network of five
ground based observatories" in order to study what happened to the
ionosphere when the Shuttle injected gases into it from the Orbit
Maneuvering System (OMS). They discovered that they could "induce
ionospheric holes", and began to experiment with holes made in the
day time, or at night over Millstone, Connecticut, and Arecibo,
Puerto Rico. They experimented with the effects of "artificially
induced ionospheric depletions on very low frequency wave lengths,
on equatorial plasma instabilities, and on low frequency radio
astronomical observations over Roberval, Quebec, Kwajelein, in the
Marshall Islands and Hobart, Tasmania. (Advanced Space Research,
Vol.8, No. 1, 1988)
Innovative Shuttle Experiments (1985)
An innovative use of the Space Shuttle to preform space physics
experiments in earth orbit was launched, using the OMS injections
of gases to "cause a sudden depletion in the local plasma
concentration, the creation of a so-called ionospheric hole". This
artificially induced plasma depletion can then be used to
investigate other space phenomena, such as the growth of the
plasma instabilities or the modification of radio propagation
paths. The 47 second OMS burn of July 29,1985, produced the
largest and most long-lived ionospheric hole to date, dumping some
830 kg of exhaust into the ionosphere at sunset. A 6 second, 68 km
OMS release above Connecticut in August 1985, produced an airglow
which covered over 400,000 square km.
During the 1980's rocket launches globally numbered about 500 to
600 a year, peaking at 1500 in 1989. There were many more during
the Gulf War. The Shuttle is the largest of the solid fuel
rockets, with twin 45 metre boosters. All solid fuel rockets
release large amounts of hydrochloric acid in their exhaust, each
Shuttle flight injecting about 75 tonnes of ozone destroying
chlorine into the stratosphere. Those launched since 1992 inject
even more ozone destroying chlorine, about 187 tonnes, into the
stratosphere (which contains the ozone layer).
Mighty Oaks (1986)
In April 1986, just before the Chernobyl disaster, the US had a
failed hydrogen test at the Nevada Test Site called Mighty Oaks.
This test, conducted far underground, consisted of a hydrogen bomb
explosion in one chamber, with a leaded steel door to the chamber,
two metres thick, closing within milliseconds of the blast. The
door was to allow only the first radioactive beam to escape into
the "control room" in which expensive instrumentation was located.
The radiation was to be captured as a weapon beam. The door failed
to close as quickly as planned, causing the radioactive gases and
debris to fill the control room, destroying millions of dollars
worth of equipment. The experiment was part of a program to
develop X-ray and particle beam weapons. The radioactive releases
from Mighty Oaks were vented, under a "licensed venting", and were
likely responsible for many of the North American nuclear fallout
reports in May 1986, which were attributed to the Chernobyl
disaster.
Desert Storm (1991)
According to Defence News, April 13 - 19, 1992, the US deployed an
electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP) in Desert Storm, designed to
mimic the flash of electricity from a nuclear bomb. The Sandia
National Laboratory had built a 23,000 square metre laboratory on
the Kirkland Air Force Base, 1989, to house the Hermes III
electron beam generator capable of producing 20 Trillion Watt
pulses lasting 20 billionths to 25 billionths of a second. This
X-ray simulator is called a Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator. A
stream of electrons hitting a metal plate can produce a pulsed
X-ray or gamma ray. Hermes II had produced electron beams since
1974. Thes devises were apparently tested during the Gulf War,
although detailed information on them is sparce.
High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program HAARP (1993)
The HAARP Program is jointly managed by the US Air Force and the
US Navy, and is based in Gakona, Alaska. It is designed to
"understand, simulate and control ionospheric processes that might
alter the performance of communication and surveillance systems".
The HAARP system intends to beam 3.6 Gigawatts of effective
radiated power of high frequency radio energy into the ionosphere
in order to:
* generate extremely low frequency (ELF) waves for
communicating with submerged submarines,
* conduct geophysical probes to identify and characterize
natural ionospheric processes so that techniques can be
developed to mitigate or control them,
* generate ionospheric lenses to focus large amounts of high
frequency (HF) energy, thus providing a means of triggering
ionospheric processes that potentially could be exploited for
Department of Defence purposes,
* electron acceleration for infrared (IR) and other optical
emissions which could be used to control radio wave
propagation properties,
* generate geomagnetic field aligned ionization to control the
reflection\scattering properties of radio waves,
* use oblique heating to produce effects on radio wave
propagation, thus broadening the potential military
applications of ionospheric enhancement technology.
Poker Flat Rocket Launch (1968 to Present)
The Pocker Flat Research Range is located about 50 km North of
Fairbanks, Alaska, and it was established in 1968. It is operated
by the Geophysical Institute with the University of Alaska
Fairbanks, under NASA contract. About 250 major rocket launches
have taken place from this site, and in 1994, a 16 metre long
rocket was launched to help NASA "understand chemical reactions in
the atmosphere associated with global climate change". Similar
experiments, but using Chemical Release Modules (CRM) have been
launched from Churchill, Manitoba. In 1980, Brian Whelan's
"Project Waterhole", disrupted an aurora borealis, bringing it to
a temporary halt. In February 1983, the chemical released into the
ionosphere caused an aurora borealis over Churchill. In March
1989, two Black Brant X's and two Nike Orions rockets were
launched over Canada, releasing barium at high altitudes and
creating artificial clouds. These Churchill artificial clouds were
observed from as far away as Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The US Navy has also been carrying on High Power Auroral
Stimulation (HIPAS) research in Alaska. Through a series of wires
and a 15 metre antenna, they have beamed high intensity signals
into the upper atmosphere, generating a controlled disturbance in
the ionosphere. As early as 1992, the Navy talked of creating 10
kilometre long antennas in the sky to generate extremely low
frequency (ELF) waves needed for communicating with submarines.
Another purpose of these experiments is to study the Aurora
Borealis, called by some an outdoor plasma lab for studying the
principles of fusion. Shuttle flights are now able to generate
auroras with an electron beam. On November 10, 1991, and aurora
borealis appeared in the Texas sky for the first time ever
recorded, and it was seen by people as far away as Ohio and Utah,
Nebraska and Missouri. The sky was "Christmas colours", and
various scientists were quick to blame it on solar activity.
However, when pressed most would admit that the ionosphere must
have been weakened at the time, so that the electrically charged
particle hitting the earth's atmosphere created the highly visible
light called airglow. These charged particles are normally pulled
northwards by the earths magnetic forces, to the magnetic north
pole. The Northern Lights, as the aurora borealis is called,
normally occurs in the vortex at the pole where the energetic
particles, directed by the magnetic force lines, are directed.
Conclusions
It would be rash to assume that HAARP is an isolated experiment
which would not be expanded. It is related to fifty years of
intensive and increasingly destructive programs to understand and
control the upper atmosphere.
It would be rash not to associate HAARP with the space laboratory
construction which is separately being planned by the United
States. HAARP is an integral part of a long history of space
research and development of a deliberate military nature.
The military implications of combining these projects is alarming.
Basic to this project is control of communications, both
disruption and reliability in hostile environments. The power
wielded by such control is obvious.
The ability of the HAARP / Spacelab/ rocket combination to deliver
a very large amount of energy, comparable to a nuclear bomb,
anywhere on earth via laser and particle beams, are frightening.
The project is likely to be "sold" to the public as a space shield
against incoming weapons, or , for the more gullible, a devise for
repairing the ozone layer.
Further References:
* C.L. Herzenberg, Physics and Society, April 1994.
* R. Williams, Physics and Society, April 1988.
* B. Eastlund, Microwave News, May/June 1994.
* W. Kofman and C. Lathuillere, Geophysical Research Letters,
Vol 14, No. 11, pp 1158-1161, November 1987 (Includes French
experiments at EISCAT).
* G. Metz and F.W. Perkins. "Ionospheric Modification Theory:
Past Present and Future", Radio Science, Vol.9, No. 11, pp
885-888, November 1974.