WISE
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
    • Nic'anilen Na'
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • We are ALL Teachers
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog

WISEfriends Blog

WISE and HAARP

8/31/2018

1 Comment

 
Copper River Record  September 6,2018
By Robin Mayo
WISE staff and volunteers spent last Saturday up at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility in Gakona, helping out with their open house.  About 300 guests from near and far attended, and it was a fun chance to learn about some of the cutting-edge science that University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) is facilitating there.
Several locals asked me why WISE was there, and how we are connected with HAARP.  The answer goes a long way back, right to the origins of WISE.  In 2001, a group of local educators who had been talking about the need for environmental education in the area decided to get together for a meeting and make a plan of action.  One of these people was Dr. Daniel Solie, a physics professor at UAF who had worked on Mt. Wrangell as part of a UAF Geophysical Institute research team.
At the time HAARP was operated by the US Air Force.  Dr. Solie worked as an outreach educator for the facility, going to local schools with hands-on physics experiments.  When the meetings led to the formation of a nonprofit to help coordinate and expedite science and environmental education, Dr. Solie volunteered to serve on the Board of Directors. Although he lives in Fairbanks, he served on the WISE  board until 2014, helping guide the organization from an idea at a kitchen table to a busy organization with full-time staff. He still serves on the advisory board and is a generous donor.
Meanwhile, HAARP was going through some changes as well.  The Air Force left the facility, turning over the keys to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.  UAF was faced with the task of transitioning the facility to a University-run project, and one of the first priorities was making it more available for the public to visit and understand.  If you have an instrument called the “Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar” there is a pretty good chance most of us don’t understand it, and would like to take a closer look.
Under the Air Force, HAARP had become the subject of a wide range of conspiracy theories. Armed with open minds, an eagerness to share the truth, and a sense of humor, UAF has held an open house every year, giving a chance to see the generators, control room, antennae array, and other facilities first hand. They have even designed a fun logo giving the facility the nickname “area 49,” which they print on t-shirts and shotglasses.
Adding a nice dash of serendipity, the Public Information Officer at the Geophysical Institute just happens to be an old friend of mine from Fairbanks, Sue Mitchell.  In the 1970s we were riding our ponies in the Boreal Arboretum just behind the Geophysical Institute.  So when they were looking for help in connecting with local resources for the first UAF HAARP Open House in 2016, Sue called WISE.  We help with publicity and scheduling, suggest local resources to help with event logistics, and generally be there to help our partner with this big event.
Do I understand all the science that is going on at the facility just northeast of Gakona? No, not even close.  My brain is not nearly big enough or stretchy enough to wrap itself around those cool feats of atmospheric physics and advanced electrical engineering.  But I relish visiting the array and attending lectures by HAARP scientists, because their passion and commitment to a science which cannot even be seen is an inspiration.
When asked about the conspiracy theories, I like to repeat the answer given by Dr. Christopher Fallen at a talk on HAARP several years ago.  He said that he couldn’t prove that they were NOT doing something, science just doesn’t work that way.  What we can do is show and tell everything they are doing, and help people understand the real science that happens at this unique facility. For more information on HAARP, I recommend the Geophysical Institute’s website:  www.gi.alaska.edu/haarp. 
Picture
​A group from WISE strikes a silly pose after touring the antennae array
1 Comment
    Picture

    Who We Are

    WISEfriends are several writers connected with Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment, a nonprofit organization located in Alaska's Copper River Valley.  Most of these articles originally appeared in our local newspaper, the Copper River Record.

    Archives

    August 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2009
    September 2007
    August 2007
    May 2007
    May 2006
    May 2005
    March 2005
    June 2003
    September 2000
    July 2000
    July 1998
    June 1998

    Categories

    All
    Alaska Forum On The Environment
    Aquatic Ecology Camp
    Art
    Audubon's Christmas Bird Count
    Bear
    Birds
    Blueberries
    Camping
    Cats
    Changing Seasons
    Chosen Frozen
    Christmas Bird Count
    Clean-up Day
    Copper River Basin Symposium
    Copper River Stewardship Program
    Denali
    Donation
    Earth Discovery Day
    Fish
    Geology Camp
    Giving Tuesday
    Glacier
    HAARP
    Hikes
    Home
    Ice Fishing
    In Class Science
    In-Class Science
    Insects
    Interns
    Kotsina River Cleanup
    Lamprey Lecture
    Lecture Series
    Local Food
    Meadow Jumping Mouse
    Moose
    Natures Beauty
    Neighborhood Nuisance
    Nic'anilen'Na
    Oil Spill
    Owl
    OWLS
    Partnerships
    Plants
    Pop-Up Natural Playground
    Project Healing Waters
    Quinzee
    Redback Voles
    Re-Usable Shopping Bag
    Salmon Blitz
    Skiing
    Snow
    Snowshoe Hares
    Subsistence
    Tolsona Mud Volcanoes
    Tonsina River Trail
    Volcano
    Weather
    Wildfires
    Wild Plants Of The Copper Basin
    Wings Over The Wrangells
    Winter Fun Day
    WISE News
    WISE Thoughts
    Women Of Distinction
    Wrangell St. Elias National Park

    RSS Feed

Picture
About WISE
What We Do
Get Involved
Support WISE 

Contact Us
Policies​
Wrangell Institute for Science & Environment 
www.wise-edu.org
[email protected]
(907) 822-3575
​WISE is a
501(c)3
nonprofit
​organization
 
​

Contact Us

Donate
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
    • Nic'anilen Na'
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • We are ALL Teachers
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog