The Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) of Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) is developing and implementing a suite of electromagnetic wave-based technologies to observe the middle atmosphere, as a collaborative project with the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (GI/UAF).

The project aims to develp and demonstrate the observational technologies and science for investigating global environmental changes and abnormalities. Nine kinds of scientific instruments have been developed that, in combination, give a detailed picture of the Arctic atmospheric environment. The major target of the atmospheric observations associated with this pan is the middle atmosphere from the stratosphere to the lower thermosphere (10-100 km), above Alaska) The Poker Flat Research Range of GI/UAF was chosen as the primary field site, where aurora borealis and other effects of solar activity are especially pronounced. Also the interior of Alaska is often located near the edge of the Arctic polar vortex that forms a suitable condition for the ozone hole, and is a region where other unique polar atmospheric phenomena are displayed.

A data transfer experiment of the computer network began with a new connection of the University of Alaska Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, to the Seattle GigaPoP in October 1999. This enabled the middle and upper atmosphere observation instruments in Alaska to connect to other states, and thus Japan, with a high-speed link, through the APAN project.