To Overcome Air Pollution, Artificial Rain in Jakarta and its Surroundings Lasts until September

Illustration of rain (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Head of the Climate Change Information Center, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), A Fachri Radjab revealed that the weather modification operation in the form of artificial rain will continue until September 2023. This effort was made to reduce air pollution in Jakarta.

"Currently it is still ongoing, we are planning a weather modification operation until September 4," said Fachri in his statement, Monday, August 28.

The BMKG also conveyed that pollution prevention efforts were being carried out with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), the Indonesian Air Force, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

"So the BMKG, BRIN and the Indonesian Air Force, KLHK, BNPB carried out this operation at Halim Air Force Base. We have started since August 19, 2023 until today, making 13 attempts," he said

What was done in this operation was to seed salt to speed up the condensation process which provoked rain.

"On August 27, we made two sorting flights at 10.00 a.m. Western Indonesian Time (WIB) and 15.00 p.m. WIB. We did seeding in locations where there was potential for clouds. From the monitoring machine, we saw that there was potential for cloud seeds around Bogor. Based on radar images, there are very few cells clouds. We seeded at 15.00 p.m. WIB, then at 16.00 p.m. WIB it spread to the south of Jakarta," he explained.

According to Fachri, this artificial rain is quite helpful in reducing pollution levels, although it is not significant.

The Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya also said that the weather modification technique carried out by her party last Sunday had proven effective in reducing air pollution particles.

The weather modification technique caused rain in the Bogor area for five minutes and reduced the Air Pollutant Standard Index (ISPU) score from 97 to 29.

Based on these results, the government is currently exploring alternative weather modification techniques to continue to improve air quality.

"Yesterday, August 27, it rained in Bogor for 05.53 minutes. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry is following its developments and as long as our record is that after it rained at 15.30 the air quality was good," said Siti Nurbaya.