In 2012, the NOEMA (NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array) project took over from the Bure Plateau millimeter interferometer designed by IRAM (Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique) in the late 1980s. This Franco-German project has doubled the number of antennas from six to twelve and extended the rails on which they can be moved up to 5,249 ft (1,600 m). The seventh dish and first NOEMA antenna was inaugurated in September 2014 when the observatory officially changed its name to NOEMA Observatory. By improving its sensitivity and angular resolution, the NOEMA Observatory has become the most powerful in the entire Northern Hemisphere and the second in the world after ALMA, located at an altitude of 16,568 ft (5,050 m) in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Its lunar environment served as the setting for the Franco-British series The War of the Worlds in 2019.