OMM Newsroom
Indonesia plans to scatter dry ice above South Sumatra in an experimental attempt to disperse toxic haze from wildfires, as the country faces its worst fire season in a decade.
An aircraft is due to release pellets of solid carbon dioxide on Thursday over the province, one of the areas most affected by the smoke, according to the BBC. Authorities say the trial will use 1.5 tons of dry ice.
The approach differs from cloud seeding, which has been used in Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia for weeks to encourage rainfall by dispersing compounds such as silver iodide in clouds.
The dry ice is intended to “break down” haze in the lower atmosphere so it can rise, Dudung Abdurachman, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political and security affairs, said. If the trial succeeds, authorities plan to extend the method to other areas at the centre of the haze, including Central Kalimantan.
Further cloud-seeding operations are planned in Central Kalimantan on Thursday and Friday. Firefighters are also tackling blazes on the ground, while dozens of helicopters have been deployed to help extinguish the fires. At times, poor visibility has disrupted those operations.
Residents in Kalimantan and South Sumatra have been heavily affected, with air in many cities turning dusty amber. Smoke has also crossed into Singapore and Malaysia, where air quality readings have reached unhealthy levels.
Authorities in Malaysia have carried out cloud seeding in areas including Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru. Indonesia gave Malaysian agencies permission last month to enter its airspace for seeding operations along the countries’ shared border.
More than one million wildfire hotspots have been recorded in Indonesia this year, burning almost 900,000 hectares of land, according to forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas. Indonesian police have named more than 200 people and nine companies as suspects in connection with the fires. Agricultural companies have faced public criticism for burning vegetation to clear land.
