Afternoon Until Early Morning As Much As 3 Tons Of Salt Sprinkled Into The Air Reduces Rainfall In West Java

Joint officers packaged salt onto the plane at Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Base for weather modification/DOK ANTARA operation

JAKARTA - A total of three tons of salt or sodium chloride (NaCl) was successfully smeared into the air by joint officers using a weather modification operation aircraft to reduce the intensity of rain that could trigger hydrometeorological disasters in the West Java region.

Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information and Communication Center Abdul Muhari said the salt seeding was carried out in three flights of the Cessna Caravan 208B aircraft carried out last Wednesday from noon, early in the morning.

"The target area for seeding is a potential rainy cloud in the southwestern part of West Java-northwest of West Java which is at an altitude of 10,000-11,000 feet or more than three kilometers," he explained in a statement in Jakarta, Antara, Thursday, December 12.

The weather modification operation team from BNPB, Air Force, and the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) today are still on standby at Halim Perdankesuma Air Base to prepare further seeding to several potential rainy cloud areas in accordance with weather satellite monitoring.

A total of 50 tons of salt has been prepared by BNPB to be smeared into potential clouds in West Java, in the next few days in order to reduce the potential for rain that has triggered hydrometeorological disasters, such as floods and landslides in Sukabumi and Cianjur Regencies on December 3-4, 2024.

BNPB assesses that the seeding using an intense aircraft using a jumping method like this can optimize the process of distributing rain cloud in the West Java sky to the sea so that the intensity of rain in the disaster-affected areas can be reduced.