Cloud seeding useless, as rain begins to fall
Cloud seeding useless, as rain begins to fall
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Climatologists said that some western parts of Java island was
entering the transitional period between the dry and rainy
seasons, therefore the city administration's plan to carry out
cloud seeding would not be necessary.
A senior researcher with the National Aeronautics and Space
Agency (Lapan), Erna Sri Adiningsih, said that rain had fallen in
several areas of the city.
"If the purpose of the cloud seeding is only to make Jakarta
wet, I think it's unnecessary to spend so much money, as rain has
begun to fall," Erna told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
She was referring to the Rp 2.2 billion (US$258,824) cloud
seeding project the administration proposed to initiate in mid-
September.
Erna also said there was no guarantee that the cloud seeding
would be successful.
A similar statement was given by Paulus Agus Winarso, a senior
scientist at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG).
He told the Post that spending such a great amount of money on
the project would be too risky for the administration, as there
was no guarantee that it would be successful.
Paulus also said the international climatology community had
yet to recommend cloud seeding or other weather modification
methods to resolve the ongoing drought.
He even questioned the efficiency of the project, even if it
did manage to create rainfall in the city, as the water would
flow straight to the rivers and the sea because of the city's
limited capacity to accommodate the precipitation.
"The result of the project would not be worth the Rp 2.2
billion slated for its budget," he said.
Erna pointed out that heavy rain from the cloud seeding would
be unlikely this month for various reasons, including the
unstable atmospheric condition and average cloud cover.
She did, however, support an earlier statement by head of the
City Environmental Management Agency Kosasih Wirahadikusumah that
inducing rainfall in the midst of the dry season would reduce the
volume of rain during the peak of the rainy season, which usually
causes flooding in the capital.