be heard in various locales. Two Georgia men arrested on drug charges in November 2016 were reportedly plotting domestic terrorism based on conspiracy theories about HAARP. The Coffee County Sheriff's Office said the men possessed a "massive arsenal" that included AR-15 rifles, Glock handguns, a Remington rifle and thousands of rounds of ammunition. According to police, the men wanted to destroy HAARP because they believed the facility manipulates the weather, controls minds and even traps the souls of people. Police say the men confessed that "God told them to go and blow this machine up that kept souls, so souls could be released." Stanford University professor Umran Inan told Popular Science that weather-control conspiracy theories were "completely uninformed," explaining that "there's absolutely nothing we can do to disturb the Earth's [weather] systems. Even though the power HAARP radiates is very large, it's minuscule compared with the power of a lightning flash—and there are 50 to 100 lightning flashes every second. HAARP's intensity is very small." Computer scientist David Naiditch characterizes HAARP as "a magnet for conspiracy theorists," saying that HAARP attracts their attention because, "its purpose seems deeply mysterious to the scientifically uninformed." Journalist Sharon Weinberger called HAARP "the Moby Dick of conspiracy theories," and said the popularity of conspiracy theories often overshadows the benefits HAARP may provide to the scientific community. Austin Baird writing in the Alaska Dispatch said, "What makes HAARP susceptible to conspiracy criticism is simple. The facility doesn't open its doors in the same way as other federally funded research facilities around the country, and it doesn't go to great efforts to explain the importance of its research to the public." In 2016, in response to these claims, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, which manages the facility, announced that HAARP will host an annual open house in August, allowing visitors to tour the complex. See also EISCAT Geophysical Institute HIPAS Observatory Ionospheric reflection Poker Flat Research Range Riometer SuperDARN Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility References Further reading A first person account from an amateur radio operator who got a full tour of the HAARP site. Patents C. W. Hansell (1945). "Communication system by pulses through the Earth", . R. L. Tanner (1965). "Extremely low-frequency antenna", . G. F. Leydorf (1966). "Antenna near field coupling system", . B. J. Eastlund (1987). "Method and apparatus for altering a region in the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere, and/or magnetosphere", .