Indonesia: Hot spots detected in Sumatra

The Jakarta Post 6 Jul 15;

The US Terra and Aqua satellites have detected 36 hot spots indicating forest fires in Sumatra on Saturday morning.

The two satellites showed that 11 hot spots are in Jambi, 10 in Riau, nine in South Sumatra, two each in Aceh and Lampung, and one each in North Sumatra and West Sumatra, head of the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Office Sugarin said as quoted by Antara.

“In Riau province, seven of the 10 hot spots were found in Indragiri Hulu,” he said.

As a result, from Friday to Saturday Riau was shrouded in a haze that included smoke from the neighboring provinces of Jambi and South Sumatra.

While visibility in Pekanbaru, Pelalawan and Rengat dropped to between three to five kilometers, it dropped even more to one kilometer because of haze in Dumai.

However, authorities at the Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru had decided not to cancel flights to and from the airport.

Sugarin said the Air Quality Standard Index in the six regions in Riau indicated that the air quality was moderate.

He also predicted that based on the direction of the winds the haze could soon be blown across the Malacca Strait to Malaysia and Singapore.

Jakarta's cloud-seeding efforts run into snags
Strengthening El Nino effect plus dry season causing lack of clouds may spark more fires
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Straits Times 7 Jul 15;

The Indonesian authorities have tamed a growing number of forest fires in neighbouring Sumatra in the past few weeks with cloud-seeding, although the operations to produce rain have not been as successful as hoped, a top official has told The Straits Times.

As the dry season takes hold, the authorities in Indonesia and its neighbours are worried about a spike in forest fires and burning off on agricultural lands. Adding to concerns, a strengthening El Nino weather pattern, which usually causes higher temperatures and drought in the region, could prime parts of Sumatra and Borneo for major blazes in coming weeks. This could overwhelm fire-fighting efforts and trigger a choking smoke haze.

The authorities began cloud-seeding on June 22 in Riau province opposite Singapore, but a lack of clouds and moisture in the air meant on some days there were no clouds to seed, said Dr Heru Widodo, head of the weather-modification team at the Indonesian agency for the assessment and application of technology.

"But it is not that the cloud-seeding wasn't effective, only the success rate was lower than that in March. Had we not done anything, there would have been so much haze now," he told The Straits Times. A dry spell in March caused a brief surge in fires.

He rated the current cloud-seeding operations at seven points on a scale of one to 10, adding that the team had flown 11 flights so far and used more than 20 tonnes of cloud- seeding chemicals.

The number of fire hot spots in Sumatra jumped late last month to about 150, then quickly fell before jumping back to nearly 140 late last week, according to Meteorological Service Singapore, citing satellite data. By yesterday, the number of hot spots fell to 18 from 56 on Sunday, going by the latest map posted.

Despite recent storms, fires have kept cropping up, Dr Heru said.

Fires have also been flaring up in Jambi province and further south.

"We have received reports of rising hot-spot activity in the southern part of Sumatra. We will set up a cloud-seeding operations base in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Wednesday," he said.

Since coming to office, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pledged to be more active in fighting fires. Jakarta last September ratified the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

Under the agreement, countries have to cooperate in taking measures to prevent, monitor and mitigate the haze by controlling the sources of fires, in exchanging information and technology, and in helping one another manage outbreaks.

When asked last night about forest fires in Sumatra and the ongoing challenges faced by cloud-seeding operations, President Joko said "we will have the report tomorrow", in response to a question from The Straits Times during a breaking-of-fast event with reporters.