Weather modification for Mount Bromo forest fires not yet feasible

The Ministry of Forestry has revealed that Weather Modification Operations (OMC) to assist in extinguishing forest and land fires at Mount Bromo within the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) in East Java cannot yet be carried out. Director General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation at the Ministry of Forestry, Satyawan Pudyatmoko, stated on Monday that the obstacle is due to the unavailability of convective clouds, which are a prerequisite for weather modification, in the Bromo area. OMC is an intervention to increase rainfall potential by seeding salt or sodium chloride (NaCl) into cloud clusters using special aircraft based on scientific data, involving expert teams from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), and the Indonesian Air Force. “We have actually been thinking about conducting weather modification, but according to the BMKG, it is unlikely to be possible for at least the next 10 days because the convective clouds needed for OMC have not yet formed,” said Satyawan Pudyatmoko. The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Centre, as a technical implementation unit of the Ministry of Forestry in East Java, has recorded that the fire-affected area in the Mount Bromo region has now reached 520 hectares and data collection is still ongoing. According to the latest field monitoring results, the difficulty of land access to reach the fire hotspots means the suppression strategy is focused on a combination of ground troops and aerial firefighting, or water bombing. “Our approach combines ground troops and water bombing. Just yesterday there were 30 water bombing runs. However, the difficult terrain, strong winds, and very low air humidity make suppression efforts challenging,” he explained.