By: Anurag Baruah
March 13 2023
False: HAARP is being used to accelerate the climate change agenda through global weather modification.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
HAARP is a project based in an observatory in Alaska studying the ionosphere's properties using radio transmitters. It cannot influence the weather.
Claim ID 756f9bb4
Context
Claims involving HAARP, the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program of the University of Alaska, have been circulating on social media recently. One such narrative states that HAARP is used to accelerate the climate crisis agenda through global weather manipulation. The claim, circulating in a video, has been posted on multiple Facebook accounts and shared hundreds of times. The caption of one such post adds that people need to come together to end geoengineering.
The first clip in the video shows an airplane in flight emitting a spray, while the second clip shows a group of onlookers staring at an unusual pattern of clouds in the sky. The voiceover in the video claims that the clips show "geo-engineering aka chemtrails." The video continues, claiming HAARP is used to heat the ionosphere once the chemicals are released and that the "entire weather system globally is virtually being thwarted." Further claims state that there is no natural weather at this point and that these and various other operations, like "jet stream manipulation" and "artificial ice nucleation" involving HAARP, influence the weather and climate globally by destroying its natural cycle. The video also claims that there are 18 HAARP facilities globally, and 3 more are being built in Antarctica.
However, while some of the claims are entirely false, others are well beyond the abilities of HAARP, if not the scope of science.
In Fact
HAARP is a research tool operated by the University of Alaska and cannot influence weather or climate.
Logically contacted Jessica Matthews, HAARP's program manager, who clarified, "The research equipment at the HAARP site cannot create or amplify natural disasters." There is only one HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska, not 18 facilities, as claimed by social media users.
Logically also contacted David Hysell, Professor of Engineering at Cornell University. Hysell said that the HAARP facility is a radio transmitter used for investigating the interaction of radio waves with the ionosphere and is being operated by the University of Alaska as a tool for basic research and education. "High-frequency (HF) radio waves do not interact with the neutral atmosphere and in no way influence weather or climate," he clarified.
Fred Menk, Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle and Chair of the National Committee for Space and Radio Science, explained to Logically that the signals transmitted by HAARP are in no way designed to affect or be capable of affecting the weather or climate. "Any such suggestion is nonsense. The region studied with HAARP is at altitudes of typically 250-450 km, while planes fly and weather and climate originate at altitudes of a few km. The powers transmitted by HAARP cannot impact those lower altitudes," Professor Menk said.
After conducting a reverse image search using keyframes from the first clip in the viral video, we found the clip uploaded to YouTube on April 10, 2013. The video description mentions a Boeing 747 Supertanker in a firefighting drill involving emptying water tanks above an airfield in Sacramento, California. A CNN article from April 28, 2021, highlights that Boeing 747 Supertanker was well-known for its firefighting abilities in the past years before it was grounded for not returning a profit. We traced the second clip in the viral video to a YouTube video uploaded on February 12, 2009. The video describes a weather phenomenon known as a "Roll Cloud," recorded on May 27, 2007, at South Oliphant, Ontario. The American Meteorological Society defines this as "a low-level, horizontal, tube-shaped arcus cloud." We found many examples of such clouds on the web, similar to the viral video image.
Logically has previously debunked claims involving "chemtrails" being falsely connected with "geoengineering" experiments.
The Verdict
The claim that HAARP is being used to accelerate the climate change agenda through global weather modification is false, as reiterated by multiple experts and HAARP authorities. The video clips used in the viral video to further this claim show a firefighting drill and a natural cloud formation unrelated to the prevalent conspiracies. HAARP is a tool for basic research and education used by the University of Alaska and cannot influence weather or climate on a global scale. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.