False: The LOIS project in Sweden is part of the American HAARP project used to weaponize the weather using chemtrails.

By: Christian Haag
February 13 2023

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Context

An old video from 2013 on YouTube has resurfaced on TikTok, claiming that Sweden is a part of the American military weather research system HAARP via the LOIS-EISCAT project. The video begins by referring to an article in the Swedish tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet from 2001 which discusses whether the construction of a new antenna near the Swedish town of Växjö will help determine the origins of the Big Bang. The video claims this is a lie and that LOIS and EISCAT are part of a collaboration between Sweden and the U.S. to manipulate and control the weather using aerosols and high amounts of energy by spreading toxic metal aerosols through chemtrails into the clouds. The aerosols are released by burning fuel containing high amounts of aluminum. Given that LOIS has 10,000 antennas, the video claims that it comprises part of the largest HAARP facility in the world, stretching across all of Southern Sweden and emitting high volumes of unhealthy radiation. According to the video, the HAARP-LOIS facility then uses electromagnetic microwave energy in the clouds to absorb the energy through tons of sprayed chemtrail-aerosols. 

In Fact

However, the claim is false. Logically contacted the Onsala Space Observatory near Gothenburg, which explained that LOIS was never completed and was discontinued around 2007. A similar project, LOFAR, is currently active at Onsala, but only for receiving radio waves. The observatory also clarified there has never been any connection between LOIS and HAARP, and that they are technically very different. The LOIS project (LOFAR Outrigger in Scandinavia) began in 2001 and was part of the Scandinavian part of the LOFAR Project (Low-Frequency Array). Instead of a traditional telescope made up of one large satellite disc, it was supposed to utilize many small antennas spread across southern Sweden. Using these antennae, the project aimed to observe low-frequency radio signals from 10-250 MHz and use the collected data to study weather in space, such as solar flares.

EISCAT, also mentioned in the video, is a non-profit scientific association that operates radar facilities in Finland, Norway, and Sweden to study the atmosphere, ionosphere, and near-earth space. EISCAT and its facilities can be used by scientists from its members countries, namely Sweden, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, Japan and China. Logically contacted EISCAT, and they clarified that there are no formal connections or collaborations between EISCAT and HAARP.

HAARP, or the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, has been the focus of several conspiracy theories claiming that the U.S. military can control the weather using chemtrails. This claim has been debunked numerous by several fact-checkers such as USA Today, France24, and Climate Feedback. Claims have included HAARP being able to telepathically influence people and cause natural disasters. In the wake of the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria, claims have been made that HAARP caused it, which Logically determined to be false. 

The HAARP facility is located in Alaska and comprises a large array of antennas that uses high-frequency transmissions to study the ionosphere, the boundary between Earth's lower atmosphere, and the vacuum of space. Robert McCoy, director of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, told Climate Feedback that the high-frequency transmissions are relative to a shortwave radio, and the amount of high-energy frequency from radio would exceed the transmissions from HAARP. The transmission only causes a small effect on the ionosphere for a few seconds and is used a few hours every year. The research installation has no capability to affect the weather or influence people. 

The Verdict

Considering that HAARP can not cause natural disasters and that the LOIS project was discontinued, we have deemed this claim false.