Is the HAARP Facility located in Petrova Gora in Croatia? No, that's not true: The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a facility for studying the ionosphere is located near Gakona, Alaska, and it is the only facility of its kind in the world. A conspiracy theory about the Program and its intentions for climate control has circulated on the Internet for years. It has been debunked many times.
The claim reappeared in a TikTok video (archived here) on November 4, 2023. It opened (translated to English from Croatian by Lead Stories staff):
MODERN WEAPON OF TODAY: The most famous HAARP system is in Petrova Gora, but can be found all over Croatia. While we focus on wars in other countries, we don't notice the perfidious rat that has been going on for years in our country. HAARP - a system that imitates electromagnetic waves changes the climate, causes storms, earthquakes, floods, which directly destroys crops and consequentially results in hunger, it impacts HEART and BRAIN functions and shortens lifespan, and it can cause the main organs to stop working completely, it causes aggression, depression, panic attacks and other behavioral disorders.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sun Nov 5 10:42:18 2023 UTC)
The Program is aimed at studying the properties and behavior of the ionosphere. The main instrument is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), an array of 180 radio antennas spread over an area of 0.13 square kilometer (33 acres). The research facility is located in Gakona, Alaska. On August 11, 2015, the operation was transferred from the United States Air Force to the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The image from the TikTok video is a photograph of the HAARP facility in Galkona, Alaska, and not in Petrova Gora, Croatia, as the video claims. The original claim first appeared in 2015 in an article by a Croatian news portal Dnevno.hr, known for spreading misinformation. The post was since deleted (archived here) but different portals reposted the article in its entirety, both in Croatia and in neighboring Serbia (archived here, here and here).
A spokesperson for the Croatian State Hydrometeorological Institute (DHMZ), told Lead Stories via email on November 6, 2023, that "they don't have any facilities in Petrova Gora." Lead Stories reached out to the Croatian State Institute of Physics and will update this article if a relevant response is received.
