GAKONA, Alaska, 6 July 2007.BAE Systems has completed work on the world's largest ionospheric research facility, which will be used to study interactions between high-power radio signals and the earth's ionosphere.
As the prime contractor for the U.S. Defense Department's High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) research station, BAE Systems designed and built the facility, operating software, and controls under a series of contracts valued at more than $250 million from the Office of Naval Research.
It includes 360 radio transmitters with a combined power of 3.6 megawatts; 180, 68-foot-tall antennas covering an area of 40 acres; and five large generators providing more than 16 megawatts of power.
"HAARP is a scientific project to study the properties and behavior of the ionosphere, with emphasis on using the ionosphere to improve communications and surveillance systems for civilian and defense purposes," says Rob Jacobsen, HAARP program director for BAE Systems in Washington, D.C.
The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere between space and the earth in which electrically charged atoms, or ions, reflect radio waves, making long-distance radio communication possible.
