JAKARTA – To support emergency handling of wet hydrometeorological disasters in the Sukabumi and Cianjur areas, West Java. The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) conducted a Weather Modification Operation (OMC) and coordinated with the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the Indonesian Air Force and the West Java Provincial Government.

This Weather Modification Operation was carried out based on the direction of the Head of BNPB, Lieutenant General TNI Dr. Suharyanto, S. Sos., MM when reviewing the affected areas in Sukabumi Regency on Friday (6/12) and was also conveyed when attending the Ministerial Level Meeting (RTM) held at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK) on Tuesday (10/12)

The Weather Modification Operation in the skies of West Java used a Cessna Caravan 208/208B aircraft with aircraft registrations PK-SNP and PK-SNN.

The number of personnel that has been prepared for the West Java OMC and its surroundings includes six sets of crew, 12 Flight Scientists, two Ground Supervisors and 15 Ground Crew as well as 50,000 kg (50 tons) of NaCl powder seeding material.

OMC has carried out three sorties on Wednesday (11/12) using a Cessna Caravan 208B (PK-SNN) aircraft and has planted three tons of NaCl powder in the skies of West Java.

The first sortie was carried out at 12.04 - 14.46 WIB with the target of seeding potential rain clouds in the southwest of West Java at an altitude of 10,000 - 11,000 feet and using up 1,000 kg of NaCl powder seeding material.

Furthermore, the second sortie was carried out at 16.17 - 19.18 WIB with the target of seeding potential rain clouds in the southwest part of West Java at an altitude of 10,000 feet and using up 1,000 kg of NaCl powder seeding material.

The third sortie was carried out at 21.31 - 23.12 WIB targeting potential rain clouds in the southwest to northwest of West Java at an altitude of 10,000 feet using 1,000 kg of NaCl powder.

The OMC operations team will continue to be on site to prepare seeding in several locations that have the potential for rain, according to weather satellite monitoring.

This rainfall reduction is carried out by seeding potential clouds that will move towards the target area in order to reduce the supply of rain in the target area, with intense seeding through the Jumping Process method in the affected area, rainfall can be anticipated with redistribution to other areas through the use of potential clouds that can trigger rain and threaten the target area.

The OMC is planned to start on Wednesday (11/12) and will operate flights for 24 hours (day and night) with a total of 50 tons of NaCl powder as seeding material and the OMC Post will be established at Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Base, Jakarta.