The Sky is Burning!

A team of scientists at the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility in Alaska has published the results of a recent study in which they induced the formation of ionosphere-like plasma within the lower atmosphere of Earth. I'll explain why this is so freakin' cool momentarily, but first I thought I'd briefly share why HAARP itself is worth discussing.

HAARP's purpose, as stated in the Enironmental Impact Statement is as follows:

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is a congressionally initiated program jointly managed by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. The program's goal is to provide a state-of-the-art U.S. owned ionospheric research facility readily accessible to U.S. scientists from universities, the private sector and government...The program's purpose is to provide a research facility to conduct pioneering experiments in ionospheric phenomena. The data obtained from the proposed research would be used to analyze basic ionospheric properties and to assess the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for communications and surveillance purposes.

The facility consists of what's called the Ionosphere Research Instrument (IRI), which is an array of extremely high-power, high-frequency radio frequency (RF) transmitters. The IRI fires electromagnetic radiation into the ionosphere (the same thing that the Sun does, just from the opposite direction and in a highly controlled manner) and then uses sophisticated equipment to monitor the effects. The main idea of all this is to better understand how RF and other signals, such as those that allow us to communicate with our various sattelites, interact with the ionosphere so that we can use these properties to our advantage. This equipment is also capable of altering the properties of the ionosphere for short periods of time. For instance, by exciting the ionosphere with the IRI, researchers are able to imitate an aurora, a phenomenon in which charged particles from the ionosphere impact molecules in the atmosphere causing them to emit light.

And this is where things get interesting. In the recent study, which was featured by Nature, researchers were able to crank up the IRI and direct it at the upper atmosphere. The high energy from the IRI's RF signal excited molecules in the atmosphere to the point that they ionized, creating an artificial patch of ionosphere. So what does this mean and why does the government care about creating artificial ionospheres? To answer this question, I will conclude with a scenario that illustrates a potential application of this ability. Let's say that you work at a CIA base of operations in Eastern Europe. You have gathered top secret data that must be relayed to another base in the Middle East. Because there is not a direct line of sight between the two bases, the communication signal is sent skyward and bouced off of the ionosphere to reach the other base in a process called over-the-horizon communication (the CIA has been using this phenomenon for communications and intelligence gathering for decades). However, the angle at which the signal must be sent is fixed (because the ionosphere doesn't move) and enemy intelligence is monitoring transmissions occuring in this region. So instead, you use an RF transmitter to induce an artificial patch of ionosphere, which you bounce your communication signal off of. The angle of transmission is different than expected and the enemy is unable to intercept the signal. Your information remains secret. You're the big hero.

The end.

P.S. Like the Large Hadron Collider, the construction and power-on of HAARP created a fair amount of panic and doomsday scenario talk. It's worth noting that instead of killing us all, the facility has produced a constant feed of information and a wealth of knowledge on the upper atmosphere. Of course, HAARP has not destroyed the Earth. Neither has the LHC. At least not yet...