Video does not show ‘HAARP ship’ floating near Spain before floods

A video and picture of what is being wrongly described as a “HAARP ship” off the coast of Spain is circulating on social media, implying it caused the recent floods which killed more than 200 people.

The footage shows a large ship which has multiple antenna-like structures, and is being shared with captions including “sources in Europe have sent me this footage: a HAARP Ship has been spotted off the coast of Spain near Valencia where catastrophic flooding has wrecked a once beautiful city” and “floating haarp ship of [sic] the coast of Spain prior to their severe flood from rain.” 

The posts imply the floods were caused by the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in Gakona, Alaska. But as we explained in a separate fact check last week, HAARP cannot control the weather. The footage being shared also shows a floating power plant, which is unrelated to HAARP.

What is HAARP?

HAARP is a high-frequency transmitter used to study the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, the ionosphere and the thermosphere, starting at an altitude of around 60 km.

It transmits radio waves into the ionosphere to cause electrons to move in waves, to study how that part of the atmosphere reacts to changing conditions. 

When we contacted HAARP about conspiracy theories claiming it was behind the flooding in Spain, a spokesperson referred us to the FAQ on its website which explains that radio waves in the frequency ranges that HAARP transmits “are not absorbed in either the troposphere or the stratosphere”, which are the two lower levels of the atmosphere that produce the Earth’s weather. “Since there is no interaction, there is no way to control the weather”, it says. 

Dr Ciaran Beggan at the British Geological Survey also told us: “HAARP is just a radio transmitter in the same way as those for a radio or TV station or air traffic control or mobile phones. It cannot create rain as it transmits radio waves”.

HAARP’s website also says it “doesn’t produce water in the atmosphere, has no capability to release gases or liquids, and does not interact with existing water in clouds”.

What is the ship?

Using Google Lens, Full Fact found the video clip was originally posted on TikTok on 25 September—a month before the flooding in Spain. The voiceover, translated from the Spanish by Google Translate, says: “Power station. This little boat full of antennas entered the sea on Wednesday” and text over the footage in Spanish translates to “power station”. It makes no mention of the HAARP facility. 

A closer look at the ship reveals “Karadeniz Powership Onur Sultan” written on it. It is a floating power plant owned and operated by Karpowership, an energy company within the Karadeniz Energy Group founded in Istanbul, Turkey. Several local media outlets reported the ship arrived into the waters of the Canaries in late September. The Canary Islands are part of Spain but off the coast of northwest Africa and approximately 1,900km away from Valencia, where the worst of the floods hit. The ship is not a HAARP facility.

We have also recently debunked false claims that HAARP caused Hurricane Milton and the Northern Lights.

Misinformation about significant weather events and natural disasters often spreads quickly on social media, so it’s important to consider whether what you are seeing is genuine before sharing. Our toolkit provides guides on how to verify pictures and videos.