HAARP Amping It Up 292
n6kuy writes "HAARP (the High frequency Active Auroral Research Program) will be adding 132 more transmitters to bring their total number of transmitters to 180.
"When the massive planar array for ionospheric research is completed in 2007, it will include a total of 180 Continental Electronics D616G 10-kW combined transmitters, which the company is upgrading specifically for HAARP," the supplier (Continental) stated. The facility is near Gakona, Alaska.
The installation began in 1993 with 18 transmitters, expanded to 48 in 1998 and will grow to 180 transmitters. The final expansion will bring the HAARP array to full power, with ERP increasing from 84 dBW to about 96 dBW.
96dBW is about 4 billion Watts.
There is speculation that the project is really an "effort to develop ways to jam the electronics of incoming missiles from Russia and/or China".
4 billion Watts oughtta do it."
speculation (Score:2, Funny)
Ah conspiracy... (Score:2, Funny)
And Elvis is overseeing the project. I'm sure he hates those damn russian missiles... Oh wait, aren't they friendly now?
(The russians, not the missiles).
Re:Ah conspiracy... (Score:2)
Re:Ah conspiracy... (Score:2)
Re:Ah conspiracy... (Score:4, Funny)
The most famous haarp practitioner I know of was definitely a Marx-ist...
Re:Ah conspiracy... (Score:2)
Re:Ah conspiracy... (Score:2, Informative)
Yes but... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes but... (Score:2)
Re:Yes but... (Score:2)
"... 10-kW combined transmitters
From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:5, Informative)
So why is the Pentagon interested in upgrading HAARP to ~4 GW? Well, if you do some research on HANEs (high altitude nuclear explosions) you will find that a nuclear explosion of even modest energy (100 KTons) is sufficient, when detonated at an altitude of greater than a couple 100 Km, of flooding the Van Allen belts with high energy electrons. (the native electron population of the radiation belts is "heated" via inverse bremsstrahlung from the hard X-rays emitted by the nuclear detonation) It is even capapble of creating NEW radiation belts at lower altitudes than normally found and it is thus estimated, extrapolating from experiments such as starfish prime [wikipedia.org] in the 50's, that virtually ALL sattelites in LEO would be destroyed within days by ESD and radiation damage if an event like this were to occur.
HOWEVER! HAARP is capable of irradiating the ionosphere with VLF EM radiation of quite high intensity and thus can alter the so called "auroral electrojet", creating a ginormous "virtual VLF antenna" in it by altering its temperature (and thus its conductance). The HAARP is thereby capable of depopulating the radiation belts of high energy charged particles in a fraction of the time it would ordinarilly take for them to calm down on thier own and thus potentially saving the many sattelites in LEO. Sound crazy? Well, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction [apc.org], and THAT is why the Pentagon is interested in this thing, not for some kooky mind control/weather control/ray gun type kookery.
Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:2)
Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:2)
And given even your concession that your description sounds crazy, maybe you should be a little more forgiving of other technologies.
Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:2)
Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:2)
Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:2)
I'd remind you that there is no complete official explanation to what HAARP does (it is after all largely classified), so you can really just stop thinking you kno
Re:From TFA (and other materials on the subject) (Score:2)
Well, duh! That was obvious right away from the contrived acronym. After all, they're all a bunch of LOSARs (Lovers Of Silly AcRonyms).
Shit (Score:2, Interesting)
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Re:Shit (Score:2)
Jamming missiles, don't be silly... (Score:5, Funny)
4 Gigawatts is enough to power 3 DeLoreans with power to spare.
Maby.. (Score:4, Funny)
Tinfoil Hats Won't Save You Now! (Score:2)
That's WAAAAY too much... (Score:3, Funny)
idle spec (Score:5, Interesting)
It could also be that the Star Wars Initiative was based on satellites being able to communicate, and communication in the ionosphere (with endemic electrical currents) was thought to be possibly very tricky, especially in latitudes where the northern lights are a visible manifestation of such.
This only works at night? (Score:4, Interesting)
"Ionospheric heating cannot be performed while the sun illuminates the ionosphere for two reasons:
* Solar UV creates the ionospheric D-region, which absorbs the radio waves used for ionospheric heating.
* The solar flux overwhelms any effect of ionospheric heating. "
Re:This only works at night? (Score:5, Interesting)
HF radio waves are absorbed mostly in the D-region, and at times can be completely blacked out by elevated electron densities caused by various ionospheric disturbances, including solar X-ray flares and "Polar Cap Absorption" events caused by solar proton events.
The solar (extreme ultraviolet, shortwards of Lyman alpha) flux photoionizes the neutral atmosphere (mostly N2 and O2) creating ions by ejecting photoelectrons from the neutral molecules. These photoelectrons have energies typically up to about 100 eV (electron Volts). The "hot" photoelectrons collide with the cold ambient ionospheric electrons through the Coulomb interaction thereby heating the ionospheric electrons.
The radar heats ionospheric electrons to only a fraction of an eV. However, there are enough electrons in the tail of the heated Maxwellian distribution to excite the atomic oxygen auroral "red line" emission at 6300 Angstroms (630 nm), which has an excitation threshold of 1.96 eV. This red glow produced by radar heating is visible from the ground (with instruments).
I'm one of the "experts" quoted on the HAARP site, although I have absolutely nothing to do with it. However, I find the conspiracy theories regarding HAARP quite amusing. Why? because I can calculate exactly what the radar is doing - that's how I make my living.
Re:This only works at night? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:This only works at night? (Score:3, Informative)
"The IRI would transmit radio waves over the frequency range 2.8 to 10 MHz." from "Effects in the Ionosphere" http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/ion5.html [alaska.edu]
This is NOT a radar! It must be difficult to make a living calculate exactly what the radar is doing if you don't know the difference between radar frequencies (in the gigihertz region) and HF in the range 2.8 to 10 MHz.
Actually radar [wikipedia.org] stands for RAdio Detection And Ranging. It is not spec
HF RADARs [Re:This only works at night?] (Score:3, Informative)
I have no idea... (Score:4, Interesting)
But, four billion watts is a lot of power. The HAARP [alaska.edu] power page says that for every four watts of power transmitted, ten must be generated (40% efficiency). That's ten gigawatts, and the six diesel generators mentioned on the site produce only fifteen megawatts. Where does the extra power come from? Capacitors? If so, it would only be able to produce a single large pulse. That would be pretty useless against missiles (which wouldn't all come at once).
Re:I have no idea... (Score:5, Informative)
It's not actually 4GW. It's only 3.6MW peak envelope power. 4GW is the max ERP, or effective radiated power, under optimal conditions. ERP accounts for antenna gain. In other words, the field strength is the same as that from a 4GW transmitter with an isotropically radiating antenna.
See the HAARP site's technical info on phases of completion at: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/phases.html
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
Re:I have no idea... (Score:3, Informative)
All modern warheads use precision timed, placed and shaped explosives to turn a subcritical amount of uranium/plutonium into a supercritical nuclear explosion. If any part is damaged sufficiently, you will (at worst) not hav
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
Clockwork. You could use a mechanical timer to control the fuse in a weapon using the gun method [wikipedia.org] to fire a pellet o
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
Re:I have no idea... (Score:3, Informative)
So I worked a few numbers, assuming that the radio transmitters had a wavelength of 100 meters (shortwave), which puts a limit on how tightly you could focus the radio beam. If tightly focused, this array could create an electromagnetic wave with an intensity orders of magnitude more powerful than sunlight, and the electric fields associated with the radio waves would amount to millions of volts per meter. With this kind of power, your goal isn't to zap sensitiv
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
If you could by some means focus all this RF power on a volume of air the size of one wavelenght, and the voltages work up to the many-mV/m range, you'd be mostly ionizing air.
I guess this would result in a very spectacular lightshow, and a missile could be severely damaged by both EM radiating from the discharge in mid air and the heat it delivers to that air.
However, I don't think that there is any fe
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
Course I think that depends on frequency and other factors but that's the equiation used in the cellular industry..
Re:I have no idea... (Score:2)
Free Space Loss (in dB) = 20 * Log10 (frequency in MHz) + 20 * Log10 (Distance in Miles) + 36.6
Off-topic Megawatt story (Score:5, Funny)
I showed the prof the ad, and told him that when the laser came in, maybe we could try it out.
He repeated "4 megawatts? What are you going to do, shoot planes down?"
I said, "Nah, I'm a pacifist. Maybe we can zap one'a them light poles around the quad. Besides, it says so right there. 4MW."
He said "Ah, so it does. And it takes a 9-volt battery?"
I said, "It's got a transformer."
He clenched his lips together extremely tightly, and screwed his eyes shut. He looked briefly like he was rumbling. Then, he gained control over it and said, "Well, you'll have to bring that baby in, kid. I'll be right back..."
Years later, looking back, I'm pleased I was able to give a man his age the belly laugh I'm sure he went out in the hall to enjoy. It's the little pleasures that make life worthwhile...
More conspiracy theories (Score:5, Insightful)
The array has so far produced localized auroras (go Google it yourself, I'm not your mother), which is one of the effects it was predicted to be able to achieve in addition to providing a theoretical way to improve radio reception, but I've heard some great crackpot theories. Most come from the tin-foil hat people who think it's a mind control device, but there's some lame stuff like destroying the ozone layer over only blue or only red states so Democrats/Republicans will all die of skin cancer or find oil sources for the big companies with government funding. The best, however, is the suggestion that it controls earthquakes. 'HAARP' + 'earthquake' is an entertaining google search. Iran, Sumatra, you name it. It was a secret government attack. Oh yeah, don't forget Hurricane Katrina. Obviously a creation of HAARP.
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:3, Insightful)
I then went over to CNN to see what they
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:5, Insightful)
The Army has never denied that.
Just earlier that day US officials in London had denied using these weapons
There was only one official making that claim. He is Ambassador Tuttle -- a crony of Bush. His last job was an auto dealer for goodness' sake. He is not qualified to comment on Army weaponry, much less be the ambassador. He's clueless.
Here's his bio from the State Dept web site [state.gov]:
You can't claim a vast government conspiracy to cover-up something simply because one idiot in London spouted off before checking the facts. Well, you can actually, but you will look like an idiot if you do.Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:3, Insightful)
Mmmm. It's a chemical, it's deployed with bombs, it melts the skin off of it's victims. Nope, it could not possibly be a chemical weapon, no way, no sir.
"The reason there was no mention of it is that it was covered several news cycles ago. It turns out it's crap. Who knew?"
Appatenly not you. Because that day it was on the front page of asia.cnn.com. cnn.com didn't have it on their front page while asia.cnn.com did.
"Because we'r
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:2)
White phosphorus is nasty stuff -- and it has been used as a weapon for over a century. Calling it a chemical weapon is hyperbole at best. Also note that the "progressive" crowd wasn't complaining about phosphorous when NATO dropped it on Serbia.
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a common republitard tactic. When the facts are clearly against you simply redefine the subject. Clorox is a household chemical so is ammonia, mix them together and you get a dangerous chemical, put it in a shell and lob it at people and it becomes a chemical weapon. In this case the US military lied over and over again saying that they only used it for smoke and marking. Yesterday they admitted that they were lying
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:2)
That's simply a lie. The Army has always had it in their weapons inventory as an incendiary to destroy enemy fortifications to expose their position or to kill them in it. See Army Field Manual 23-90 here [usmc.mil] (page 3-17):
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, that is mustard gas. It is a chemical weapon by definition. See the UN definition of chemical weapons.
"Chemical weapons, as defined by the 1969 United Nations report entitled "Chemical and Bacteriological Weapons, and the Effect of Their Possible Use," are chemical agents of warfare taken to be chemical substances, whether gaseo
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:3)
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:3)
I don't think I've heard of any one project being the source of so many "evil" events, natural and man-made. Hell, some people will even claim is was used to steer and strengthen a hurricane to further some mysterious group's plan for global depopulation in once sentence, and in the very next claim it was used to dissipate another hurricane for an "unknown agenda". Wow...
Re:More conspiracy theories (Score:2)
Mind ControBzzzzzotttt!!!... (Score:2)
Neat, but it's a lot more interesting... (Score:2)
Go Joe! (Score:3, Funny)
lots of funnies (Score:2, Insightful)
Bring on the informative and insightful posts.
The definitive HAARP conspiracy book (Score:2)
(yes, no affiliate code in that link...amazing)
Re:The definitive HAARP conspiracy book (Score:2)
Apparently a documentary where locals describe the negative effects. Slashdot it so I can download faster! (Weird to say, thanks BitTorrent)
--
From Northern Virginia? [fairfaxunderground.com]
Listen to HAARP (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Listen to HAARP (Score:2)
Please do some research and understand what 4 Billion Watts ERP means.
A Grand Cannon? (Score:2)
What is the real Power? (Score:4, Informative)
Megawatts of RF power is big, but not big enough to knock down ICBMs. The Idea with HAARP is to use the RF power to heat the Ionosphere in the northern latitudes where there are enormous currents induced by the Aurora. The power sloshing around in the upper Ionosphere is of the order of Terawatts. They hope to modulate these rivers of currents by locally heating small spots in the ionosphere plasma, thus radiating gigawatts of power at ultra low frequencies ( 1 to 100 Hz)... a very cool Mad scientist Idea... Very evil..
DR. Null
I've been to HAARP... (Score:2, Interesting)
Not quite enough power (Score:2)
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but... (Score:2)
Even if it's not related, I'm really curious what is so big that needs to be kept secret.
Re:I am not a conspiracy theorist, but... (Score:2)
Its the Black Rectangle from 2001! (Score:2)
intelligent AND responsible that its batteries ran out and it
fell over.
Activate the HAARP array, Lord Vader! (Score:2)
But... (Score:2)
Bush (after succeful missile attack): Why didn't my 4 jigga watt nukular deterrent stop the bad guys?
Scientist: well... they err... avoided flying high over Alaska.
Bush: Damn those sneaky commies.
Legends (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps they're trying to contain Magneto.
It's for SUBMARINE communications. (Score:2)
4 billion Watts? (Score:2)
BTW, imagine a Beowulf cluster of HAARPs... Could it jam the electronics of a Beowulf cluster of Russian and Chinese nukes?
Pluck a guitar string one one side of the room... (Score:2, Interesting)
Okay. .
During the big world wars, generals learned that they needed to march troops across bridges with their footfalls out of phase with each other. It was found that if the soldiers marched in perfect time with one another, the energy from a few thousand stomping feet would enter the bridge structure and set it to vibrating. A standing wave was able then to build until the
Re:die whales (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2, Insightful)
Fortunately, the magical purple bunny was the last defense project that the US spent money on. That other country will be in for a surprise come Easter.
Besides, we all know that there was no war before the US started pissing everyone off. Actually, War was born right after G.
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:4, Informative)
IN the last few decades the US has been involved in more wars then any other country on the planet. The problem we have with George is that he is waging war for profit, fun, and because "god told him to" (his words not mine).
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
NO it's not. That's just a stupid childish analogy. Not only is it childish it's also completely irrelevent.
"Sometimes we have to kill those that wish to kill us."
So is it OK if I kill my neighbor because I think he wishes to kill me? Is it OK for me to blow up a building because I think three people in it wish to kill me?
"Islamic facist killing the inocent over and over again in the name of a perversion of Islam the believe? Or, would you rather put them down like the sick dogs they
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
Umm, that's how wars start. Now its you starting the wall of fire for the other side. So then they fight back, so on, and so on. The only way to stop war, is to (are you ready for it?), STOP WAR.
War is the same thing. Sometimes we have to kill those that wish to kill us.
No we don't
Now what would your rather choose? Islamic facist killi
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
that's because somehow we've become some stupid global police force so whenever there's an injustice in the world everyone cries to the US to come save their a$$. It kinda started with WWI and went from there.
Sometimes i just wish we could say "look, i know your people are getting slaughtered by the thousands and it's sad, really, but we're trying to study the properties and behavior of the ionosphere
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
Dude, Grimace is purple.
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/ch ronicle/archive/2005/10/07/MNGNVF3SFM1.DTL [sfgate.com]
It comes down to who you believe, the White House or a bunch of high-ranking Palestinians. Given the White House's track record on truth telling so far, that's not an easy question...
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
But whatever. Someone stated something that attacked Bush, so much of the world will now believe it, no matter how inane and ridiculous it is. Like this absolute BS.
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:2)
Re:Wow big suprise US spending billions on defense (Score:3)
Re:NO JOKE (Score:2)
Re:NO JOKE (Score:2)
Re:Negative Effects (Score:3, Interesting)
-----
Ionospheric physicists have two general attitudes about about HAARP.
(1) it's a cool facility which permits manipulation of the bottomside F region plasma physics, and provides an opportunity to study some intriguing plasma physics (3 and 4 wave interactions), as well as some
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
Re:Negative Effects (Score:2)
Disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about in this case - 4 billion watts might be a small amount as well.
So did NetForce... (Score:2)
Remo Williams (Score:2)
I thought it was a great movie. It's a shame it never took off (unless you count the really bad one-shot TV pilot).
post ww2 construction made usa rich (Score:2)
If there is TOO MUCH production for too little profits, and not enough consumption....
what do you do?
Destroy capitol so that creates demand for more goods because it requires construction of new goodies.
Sounds cruel, but thats the truth, if ever product was perfect in v1.0 and never deteriorated or broke down
or faded color, or 'died', production would grind to a steady tiny trickly once everyone had everything.
Hence, real life and dn
Re:post ww2 construction made usa rich (Score:2)
These days nothing is made in the US... so other than keeping a few Chinese factories open, enriching some construction contractors, and employing some migrant workers the economic impact on the economy is not positive a
Re:How much of a paranoiac... (Score:2)