On October 18, 1993, the United States Air Force releases a “Record of Decision, High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), Final Environmental Impact Statement”.

The document, in part, states that the “…research facility would be used to understand, simulate and control ionospheric processes that might alter the performance of communications and surveillance systems…[T]he selected site must fall in the range of 61 and 65 degrees, either north or south.”