Weather Modification Is The Way The DKI Provincial Government Reduces Flood Potential

Jakarta weather (photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has again carried out a Weather Modification Operation (OMC) from this Saturday, February 1 to Thursday, February 6 as an effort to reduce the potential for flooding due to moderate to heavy rain.

"With this OMC implementation, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government hopes to minimize disaster risk due to extreme weather that is predicted to hit the Jakarta area," said the Executive Secretary of the DKI Jakarta Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Maruli Sijabat, quoting Antara.

Maruli said this weather modification was carried out in response to extreme weather forecasts that could potentially cause moderate to heavy rain in the Jakarta area.

In addition, the Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta, Teguh Setyabudi, has also instructed his staff to prepare themselves for the possibility of a similar incident that could result in a disaster.

"The BMKG has issued a warning about the potential for rainy weather that can occur until February 6," said Maruli.

Head of the DKI Jakarta BPBD Data and Information Center (Kapusdatin), Mohamad Yohan, said the modification of this weather was to change the rainfall pattern so that it could reduce the intensity of rain that occurred in a short time.

Then, according to Yohan, by reducing this rainfall, the potential for puddles and floods in Jakarta can be minimized.

OMC is part of a wider disaster mitigation effort. "By reducing rainfall, OMC contributes to reducing the risk of hydrometeorological disasters, one of which is flooding," said Yohan.

This operation is centered at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport using a Cesna aircraft belonging to the Indonesian Air Force with a number of flights considering weather forecasters and flight scientists (weather Forecaster and Flight Scientist) BMKG.

OMC takes place every day from 07.00 WIB to 17.00 WIB, with supervision from the BMKG and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) to ensure that the implementation does not interfere with commercial and military flights.

The Provincial Government (Pemprov) of DKI Jakarta at the end of 2024 has implemented OMC on 25-31 December 2024 which is considered effective in reducing the intensity of rain and mitigating the risk of hydrometeorological disasters.

This operation succeeded in reducing rainfall by 38 percent based on satellite data from the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMAP) and 28 percent based on the prediction model.

During the six operational days, BPBD carried out 10 flight sorties, seeding salt (NaCl) into the clouds with a total duration of about 19 hours 36 minutes. As a result, there was a significant decrease in rainfall with a peak of 40 mm on December 25.