Did an announced HAARP experiment cause a glowing phenomenon known as Aurora Borealis in the atmosphere in early November 2023? No, that's not true: The sun's coronal mass ejection caused the airglow.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) on November 6, 2023, under the title:
Another "conspiracy theory" was confirmed! Official: We haven't seen the Aurora Borealis, but an admitted and officially announced HAARP experiment in the sky.
(Translated from Hungarian to English by Lead Stories staff)
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Nov 7 15:15:11 2023 UTC)
The Aurora Borealis was visible from Hungary on November 5, 2023. It is quite rare that it can be seen clearly from Central Europe, photos of a red glowing sky flooded social media platforms. It was the 10th sighting this year according to a Hungarian weather site, idokep.hu:
🤩 🌊🙏 Cunamiként özönlöttek a képeitek a sarki fényről, hálásan köszönjük! Vasárnap esti képriportunk azoknak, akik lemaradtak 👉 https://t.co/x2nAahL1wj
-- Időkép (@idokep) November 5, 2023
📷: Coman1997, Lucza Zsolt, Papp Péter pic.twitter.com/3gcPeyCs1K
"Your pictures of the aurora borealis poured in like a tsunami, thank you very much! This is our Sunday evening photo report for those who missed it." (Comment on the idokep.hu site translated from Hungarian by Lead Stories staff.)
The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) which is part of the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska gave out a statement that the facility was conducting experiments in the ionosphere and warning that people in Alaska might be able to see artificial airglow in the sky between November 4 and 7. According to the statement "each day, the airglow could be visible up to 300 hundred miles from the HAARP facility in Gakona." The distance between Gakona, Alaska and Budapest, Hungary is 4,798 miles.
According to Professor Tamas Gal, the head of the Weather Research Institute at the Hungarian University of Szeged, the Aurora Borealis was caused by the sun's coronal mass ejection. The professor explained that the phenomenon needs specific circumstances to be visible from Hungary: "The Aurora Borealis can often be seen in Hungary as well if there is a strong coronal ejection and favorable visibility conditions. Sunday was particularly lucky, because the phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis was strong in the part of the pole towards Hungary, and after the cold front that passed through on Sunday, an extremely clean and cold air mass prevailed in Central Europe, which ensured excellent visibility."
Lead Stories debunked numerous false claims connected to HAARP in recent years. HAARP is a research program developed by the US Air Force in the 1990s and in 2015 it was transferred to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The project's activities are not classified. According to their website:
The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is the world's most capable high-power, high-frequency (HF) transmitter for study of the ionosphere. The principal instrument is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a phased array of 180 HF crossed-dipole antennas spread across 33 acres and capable of radiating 3.6 megawatts into the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Transmit frequencies are selectable in the range of 2.7 to 10 MHz, and since the antennas form a sophisticated phased array, the transmitted beam can take many shapes, can be scanned over a wide angular range and multiple beams can be formed. The facility uses 30 transmitter shelters, each with six pairs of 10 kilowatt transmitters, to achieve the 3.6 MW transmit power.
