The recent extreme weather has prompted the government to take several preventive action and countermeasures, one of which is the operation of Weather Modification Technology (WMT). Quoting from the official press release published by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), WMT is not new to Indonesia. Since 1977, the project, which used to be better known as artificial rain, has started. The idea emerged when President Soeharto saw that agriculture in Thailand was quite advanced. After being observed, the advancement of Thailand’s agriculture was due to the supply of agricultural water needs assisted by weather modifications.
A lecturer in Geography Study Program, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia (FMIPA UI) and also an expert in physical and environmental geography, Dr. Mangapul Parlindungan Tambunan M.Sc., said WMT’s operation is not far from its relation to technology from human interpretation in modifying natural weather. “The weather in nature can be in the form of temperature, wind, and rain whose scope is not vast, for example, in a watershed and in a region that is very dynamically related to time. If we talk about weather modification technology, we can take a look at the weather in Jakarta that tends to be short, “he said.
According to Dr. Mangapul, talking about weather modification means talking about the hydrological cycle in the atmosphere. “There is a human interpretation at the time of cloud formation. When condensation occurs, the clouds are sown so that rain occurs in the desired space,” he said. He assessed the usefulness and purpose of carrying out the WMT operation to accelerate the process of rainfall occurring in the desired space.
He also revealed that the direction and magnitude of the wind influenced the success of the WMT. However, failure of the TMC operation can occur with an estimate of more than 50% by looking at the wind acceleration. “The chance of success in controlling WMT is fifty-fifty. It just depends on the scope of the space,” he said again.
The WMT operation occurs with a chemical process. Dr. Mangapul said that after scattering salt on the air using a plane and sowing it in a predetermined area, it can speed up the movement of rainfall. “Meanwhile the WMT operation is carried out by looking at cloud conditions. Before the rain occurs, we can divert it to the desired space, such as at sea, by looking at the calculation of the rain intensity that will occur in certain space,” he said.
Apart from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG); National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN); Indonesian Air Force; and other parties or agencies, scientists and academics need to be involved in accelerating the calculation of weather movements such as rain or extreme weather at this time. Dr. Mangapul said that the involvement and collaboration of various parties, i.e. government institutions, can be widely used for the community.
“Due to the objectivity of natural science, research methods, field and institutional data, the collaboration of various parties is needed with the aim of developing the nation. It can start from BMKG which provides weather forecast reports to the Department of Geography FMIPA UI and FMIPA UI will submit research results and recommendations to the government. An example of institutional data is that if each district or sub-district has wind and rain measuring devices, either of them is conventional or modern, such as radar, it will make it easier for BMKG to obtain weather-related data,” said Dr. Mangapul.
According to him, the negative impact of WMT’s operations has not yet been found. “Because previously the WMT operation had been tested in several countries until it was used today in Indonesia. The level of effectiveness of the WMT operation can be said to be 50% successful and 50% failed. It really depends on the wind (speed and magnitude),” he said.
“Weather is something we need to be grateful for. We control weather phenomena to befriend the weather by learning, understanding, and exploring certain weather conditions so that it becomes an effort to prepare ourselves for future extreme weather,” said Dr. Mangapul.
Water spaces, such as watershed, must be utilized because watershed plays an important role in protecting the environment and providing the water needs of the community. Watershed management must be integrated from upstream to downstream so that it will not cause disasters either in upstream, in the middle part, or in downstream of the watershed.
He hopes that today’s society also understands and pays attention to the biggest or dominant factor in the occurrence of extreme weather, which is the anthropogenic factor. Anthropogenic factor appears in a form of activities that produce pollution, such as factory waste, transportation pollution, illegal logging, expansion of oil palm land, and natural factor, such as volcanoes. “One of the efforts that can be made to minimize this is by cultivating plants or planting tropical plants in open land,” said Dr. Mangapul.
Author: Mariana
