As wildfires spread across Indonesian Borneo, officials are turning to an unusual tool in hopes of slowing the destruction. The island nation wants to use cloud seeding to give Mother Nature a little push toward rain.
If the right clouds are present, seeding them could help drench peatlands before fires spiral out of control.
Government figures showed that more than 100,000 hectares had burned, while deforestation monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas estimated that more than 285,000 hectares had burned through July — an area more than twice the size of Phoenix.
With El Niño intensifying and fire danger rising, Indonesia has been increasing its cloud seeding flights during what AFP, via Phys.org, described as one of the country's worst fire seasons.
In these missions, crews release silver iodide, salt, or other particles into clouds in an effort to boost rainfall, AFP reported. The approach is not widely used worldwide to fight wildfires, but Indonesia has expanded it sharply since the devastating 2015 fires that burned millions of hectares and caused a regional haze crisis.
The limitations are well understood by Safillah Anggie Wahyuni, a meteorologist involved in the operation who spoke after a flight over Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan on Borneo.
"Weather modification does not create clouds; we optimize clouds that have the potential to produce rain," Safillah told AFP. She added, "Weather modification will only be effective if the conditions are right."
Indonesia's combination of extensive rainforests and peatlands makes fire season especially dangerous. When peat is waterlogged, it holds vast stores of carbon, but once it dries, it becomes highly flammable and can keep burning underground before erupting again.
When peatlands catch fire, the damage goes far beyond the flames themselves. The fires can send huge amounts of climate pollution into the air, endanger wildlife in one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, and spread hazardous smoke that interrupts school, work, and travel for nearby communities.
According to AFP, the BMKG weather agency said Indonesia carried out 252 cloud seeding operations from 2021 to August, compared with 85 in the previous decade.
Not all experts are convinced the tactic can do much during the driest periods. I Putu Santikayasa, a hydroclimatology lecturer at IPB University south of Jakarta, said, "Its effectiveness will be very low because of the lack of clouds," per AFP.
Officials say nearly 50,000 firefighters have been deployed on the ground to contain blazes and protect communities, while dozens of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are on standby across the country for seeding missions.
Authorities describe cloud seeding as a targeted emergency measure for places where rain could help tamp down active fires or moisten vulnerable peatlands before flames spread further. Security Minister Djamari Chaniago said, "We are on alert to changes in weather, even the slightest, which could result in rain clouds," per AFP.
Supporters of the strategy point to BMKG research suggesting it can help when conditions cooperate. AFP reported that Budi Harsoyo, the agency's weather modification director, said one of his studies linked a 12-day cloud seeding effort in 2023 to about double the expected rainfall and the elimination of fire hotspots.
Activists, however, say emergency tactics should not overshadow the deeper causes of the crisis, including rainforest clearing and peatland conversion. Preventing future fires will depend on protecting and restoring landscapes that are less likely to burn in the first place.
Harsoyo himself has acknowledged the strategy's limits, calling it "a mitigation effort, not a permanent solution."
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