HIPAS Observatory is on a 120 acre site located about 25 miles east of Fairbanks on the Chena-Hot Springs road.
there are 6 buildings (~10,000 sq ft), and remotely operated diagnostic at off-site locations.One of the buildings is a "bunkhouse," available to provide housing for visiting experimenters. The site operates year-round. Professor Alfred Y. Wong is the director and Dr. Ralph Wuerker is the associate director. There are four permanent staff members. Mr. William Huhn is the site manager. The site is owned by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, which cooperates with UCLA.
HIPAS is one of the best locations for the observation of the Auroral Borealis
HIPAS has several diverse experimental facilities: a 1-megawatt rf transmitter to produce ELF/VLF (Extremely Low and Very Low Frequency) electromagnetic (EM) generation by the absorption of radio Frequency (rf) power in the artic ionospher including ion cyclotron excitation; a 100 kW rf plasma torch used in research on the destruction of hazardous waste; a 2.7 m liquid mirror telescope used with one of several lasers for ionospheric stimulation and measurement; an Incoherent Scatter Radar (a new project using 88 ft. diameter antenna at NOAA Gilmore Creek site 34 km SW of HIPAS as the receiving antenna with the transmitter at HIPAS). We are in the process of adding a very high power (terawatt) laser (recently obtained from LLNL) to perform laser breakdown experiments in the ionosphere. Two Diesel electric generators (1500 HP 4160 V, 3-phase, _1.2 MVA each) are used to power the experiments. there are a number of computers (PC's ) on site, and a high-speed data line to UAF is available.
Over the last 20 years HIPAS Observatory has built up a spectrum of communication frequencies from very low to very high ELF (Extremely Low Frequncies) to laser frequencies.
