Salt As Weather Modification Material, Here's the Scientific Explanation

Salt Becomes Weather Modification Material (image Jason Tuinstra - Unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA - There is news that the government will deal with extreme weather with salt, can salt be used as a weather modification material?

This is true, because the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta is working with the Air Force (AU) to implement weather modification technology (TMC). The weather modification technology system (TMC) is being worked on to anticipate extreme weather that has the potential to occur in Jakarta and its surroundings.

Previously, this method was scheduled to be carried out from 25 December 2022 to 3 January 2022. In the process, weather modification technology (TMC) involved two Cassa Nc-212 Series 200 aircraft.

The plane was assigned to sow salt on the ceiling of Jakarta and West Java. Then, what is weather modification technology?

Salt Becomes a Weather-Modifying Material

Citing from the LIPI Limnology Research Center, weather modification technology is an attempt by human intervention to limit water energy sources in the atmosphere by utilizing weather parameters.

The goal is to modify the weather. Usually, this can be done to increase the intensity of rainfall in a location (rain enhancement).

Conversely, weather modification technology can also be used to reduce rain intensity (rain reduction). In the context of global warming which causes climate change, this method is a reliable solution.

Especially to reduce losses caused by disasters caused by climate and weather elements. Therefore, it is not surprising that this technology is used to anticipate extreme weather that has the potential to occur in Jakarta and its surroundings.

Weather modification technology work system

So far, weather modification technology has been carried out using aircraft. Quoted from the Ministry of Finance's website, the plane will deliver seedling material in the form of salt or NaCl to the clouds by air. The plane will carry hundreds of kilograms of salt seedling in one flight.

Then, the plane will spread the seedling materials manually according to the set coordinates. However, this method is not the only system. Evidently, there is another system for delivering the seedling material to the cloud.

In recent years, researchers have developed a way of delivering seedling material into clouds from the ground, namely by using the Ground-Based Generator (GBG) vehicle and the Flare Tree vehicle for static methods.

Both of these methods have the same working principle in delivering seedling material into the cloud. The working principle is to utilize the existence of orographic clouds and clouds that grow around the mountains as targets. Not surprisingly, the GBG and Tree Flare systems are generally applied in areas that have mountainous topography.

Application of weather modification technology

The application of weather modification technology methods is often done in Indonesia. Previously, at the Mandalika 2022 MotoGP, this system was also used. At that time, TMC's operations in Mandalika used 1 unit of Casa 212-200 aircraft from Squadron 4 of the Indonesian Air Force Air-Force Base Abdulrahman Saleh, Malang. Operations command was managed by M. Djazim Syaifullah, executive staff from the TMC Management Lab who was appointed Field Coordinator for TMC Operations in Mandalika.

Now, it is the turn of two aircraft of the Cassa NC-212 Series 200 type to be flown to spread the salt seedling over the skies of Jakarta and West Java. The two aircraft have registration numbers A-2108 and A-2104. The pilots assigned were Pnb Captain Idhan Abidin and Pnb Major Syamsu Alam.

Each aircraft can carry 800 kilograms of salt seed material and distribute it manually. As of Tuesday (27/12/2022), seven flight sorties have been carried out with 5.600 kilograms of salt that has been sown.

So after knowing that salt is a weather modification ingredient, see other interesting news on VOI, it's time to revolutionize reporting!