FACT CHECK: This video doesn’t show geo-engineering process accelerating climate change 

A Twitter post has claimed that a high-frequency active auroral research program (HAARP) is used to accelerate a climate change agenda.

“#HAARP being used to accelerate the #climateChange agenda, and humanity is paying for it. We need to all come together to end #GeoEngineering …. This needs to be shared #Turkey #earthquake #TurkeyEarthquake,” reads the caption of the Twitter video.

The video was posted by Sergeant News Network, with username, @Sgtnewsnetwork, where it gathered over 143.5k views. The video with the same claim was also shared by a couple of other Twitter users, where it gathered thousands of views.

What is HAARP?

The high-frequency active auroral research program is a scientific process which seeks to study the properties and behaviour of the ionosphere. 

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a US agency responsible for aeronautics and space research, “the ionosphere stretches roughly 50 to 400 miles above the earth’s surface, right at the edge of space. 

“Along with the neutral upper atmosphere, the ionosphere forms the boundary between Earth’s lower atmosphere — where we live and breathe — and the vacuum of space.”

The operational research facility for HAARP was initially based in the US air force, but in August 2015, it was transferred to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

HAARP is the world’s most capable high-power, high-frequency transmitter for the study of the ionosphere.

DOES HAARP PROGRAM INFLUENCE CLIMATE CHANGE?

According to HAARP’s official website, the answer is a capital no. In fact, the program cannot create or amplify any natural disasters. 

The study of the ionosphere does not manipulate weather in any way, essentially because “radio waves in the frequency range that HAARP transmits are not absorbed in either the troposphere or the stratosphere — the two levels of the atmosphere that produce Earth’s weather”. Therefore, since there is no interaction, there is no way the process can control the weather.

TWITTER VIDEO NOT NEW, IT’S BEEN ONLINE FOR OVER A DECADE

TheCable exposed the keyframes of the circulating video to Google reverse image search, which revealed the video has been existing on YouTube as far back as April 2013. 

However, the over-a-decade-old video, showing an aircraft releasing white substances into the atmosphere has a completely different context from the Twitter post. 

On YouTube, the video was captioned “Aeroplane Video – Boeing 747 supertanker water bomber aerial water drop. High Altitude water drop”

The caption of the video on YouTube further explains that the Boeing 747 aircraft is a firefighting plane aimed at combating forest fires. The huge quantity of white substance dropping from the plane’s tail is water and has nothing to do with geoengineering as claimed.

VERDICT

The claim that the HAARP project is responsible for climate change and earthquakes is false. The project is committed to the study of the ionosphere, and according to experts, it doesn’t have the ability to influence climate change or cause any natural disaster.

This content was produced with support from the Independent Media Response Fund, an initiative of the Check Global Program at Meedan to respond to global challenges through hyperlocal initiatives. The fund is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).