Haarp: the conspiracy theory that attributes rain in the South to an American project

Experts interviewed by BBC News Brasil point out that the cause of the problem is complex and has as its roots the combination of three main factors: intense wind current, humidity corridor coming from the Amazon and a heat wave in the central region of the country.

But, even if atmospheric science manages to explain the environmental catastrophe, in parallel, conspiracy theories are gaining strength.

One, in particular, came to the fore in Google searches last week and was among the most talked about topics on X, formerly Twitter.

She points out that Haarp, a North American scientific project that aims to study the physical phenomena that occur in the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, would be the cause of the unusual rains in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The conspiracy theory states that the episode was caused by “great power groups” with the aim of causing fear, confusion and indignation, and based on the vulnerability caused, to establish their own interests.

Conspiracists claim that even a snowstorm in the US state of Iowa in January 2024 was caused to influence the country’s elections.

Such claims lack scientific evidence.

According to scientists consulted by BBC News Brasil, the impact and range of the antennas used in the project are limited, they operate in a specific area of ​​the Earth’s layer and do not have the power to cause any major changes, whether in temperature, radiation level or incite environmental catastrophes.

The Haarp project has a specific focus on the ionosphere, the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere located between 80 and 640 km above the Earth’s surface.

This region serves as a border between the lower atmosphere, where we live, and outer space.

“There is no chance of any climate event being triggered in such a high atmospheric layer, as clouds and air currents are formed in the troposphere, or at most in the stratosphere, which are the lowest layers, up to around 20 km altitude “, explains Thiago Rangel, professor of Atmospheric Physics in the Postgraduate Program in Environmental Technologies at UFMS (Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul).

“Haarp antennas have no influence on meteorological phenomena, whether on a micro or macro scale”, adds the expert.

Previously managed by the United States Air Force and Navy, Haarp began to be coordinated by the University of Alaska in 2014.

According to the program’s official website, the project aims to understand how radio wave transmissions interact with electrons and free ions in the ionosphere, knowledge used to improve communication systems such as Wi-Fi, mobile internet for cell phones and applications based on in location.

“Because it is a project that emits waves in the ionosphere, people try to create this connection, very remote, that it would be possible to influence the climate on a large scale”, assesses Enio Pereira de Souza, professor at the Academic Unit of Atmospheric Sciences at UFCG (University Federal District of Campina Grande).

“And that’s precisely how conspiracy theories are constructed: bringing together diffuse elements and trying to make sense of them”, he adds.

Located in Alaska, the research base consists of high-power, high-frequency transmitting antennas called IRI (an acronym in English for Ionospheric Research Instrument, or ionospheric research instrument).

Transmitters are used to send signals to the ionosphere, temporarily exciting a specific area to observe the behavior of this layer of the atmosphere and its interaction with radio waves.

Haarp management states that the studies are essential to improve communication and surveillance systems for civil and defense purposes.

In addition to the transmitter, Haarp also has a variety of sophisticated scientific instruments that can observe and analyze the physical processes that occur in the ionosphere when excited by IRI.

With such control, the project would be capable, according to these theories, of causing natural disasters, being a weapon of mass destruction and even being used for mind control due to its ability to emit high frequency waves.

According to Rangel, none of this is possible using Haarp’s antennas, which have limited action, only emitting waves in the ionosphere layer and not interfering in the areas mentioned by conspiracists.

Official project information explains that Haarp is basically a large radio transmitter.

“Radio waves interact with electrical charges and currents, and do not interact significantly with the troposphere. Radio waves in the frequency bands that Haarp transmits are not absorbed in either the troposphere or stratosphere – the two levels of the atmosphere that produce the Earth’s climate. As there is no interaction, there is no way to control the climate”, says the project website.

“Furthermore, if ionospheric storms caused by the Sun itself do not affect surface climate, there is no chance that Haarp could either.”

On social media, profiles call the climate tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul a “planned calamity” and point out, among other supposed evidence, an abnormal cloud pattern.

Souza characterizes the images seen in the sky as stratocumulus, which are clouds that combine characteristics of stratus clouds (low, horizontal and uniform clouds) and cumulus clouds (white, fluffy clouds commonly associated with mild weather).

These clouds are common and can indicate different weather conditions, from gray weather to storms, depending on altitude and temperature.

“Even today, in Campina Grande, the sky was similar”, comments the UFCG professor.

Meteorologists interviewed by BBC News Brasil explain that the intense rains recorded in Rio Grande do Sul in recent days are the result of a combination of three main factors:

• Presence of a trough (intense wind current) operating in the region, resulting in very unstable weather;
• A corridor of humidity coming from the Amazon, which increased the intensity of precipitation;
• The strong heat wave in the central region of the country

“This hot air mass over the central area of ​​the country blocked the cold front that is in the southern region, preventing it from advancing and spreading to other locations. The combination of these factors causes this instability to remain over the state, causing rain intense and continuous”, explains Dayse Moraes, meteorologist at Inmet.

In addition, the period between the end of April and the beginning of May 2024 is still influenced by the El Niño phenomenon, which is responsible for warming the waters of the Pacific Ocean, contributing to areas of instability over the State.

“This warming of the ocean generates a region of high pressure over the center of Brazil (Southeast and Center-West), which inhibits the formation of clouds and rain and, in more intense cases, results in episodes of extreme heat”, explains the Professor Thiago Rangel.

In the regions he mentioned, temperatures are around 5°C above average this autumn.

“At the same time, a current of hot and humid air, coming from the Amazon, known as the ‘South Atlantic Convergence Zone (ZCAS’) and popularly called ‘flying rivers of moisture’, meets cold fronts coming from the south of the Amazon. continent. This causes the rapid rise of hot and humid air to the highest layers of the atmosphere, triggering intense precipitation.”

“Due to the atmospheric blockage over the center of the country, the cold front is unable to advance and remains stationary in the southern region of Brazil, forming what is known as an occluded front. This combination is conducive to high-intensity rains, lasting for more than two days”, he adds.

This combination of several factors at once is considered rare by experts.

“What makes an event very intense is what we call a perfect storm. Separately, these events caused normal rain. When they happen in combination, the volume is very large. And another important aspect is how the affected cities are prepared for deal with that”, says Enio Pereira de Souza.