ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Hygroscopic Flare-Based Cloud Seeding
to Increase Rainfall Over Lake Toba
More details
Hide details
1
Research Center for Limnology and Water Resouces, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia
2
Directorate for Laboratory Management, Research Facilities, and Science and Technology Park,
National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia
Submission date: 2023-11-28
Final revision date: 2024-03-25
Acceptance date: 2024-06-30
Online publication date: 2024-11-18
Corresponding author
Samsul Bahri
Research Center for Limnology and Water Resouces, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Jalan Raya Jakarta-Bogor, 16911, Cibinong, Kabupaten Bogor, Indonesia
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The declining North Sumatra’s Lake Toba water level caused PT Inalum to request BRIN to replenish
the lake through cloud seeding to meet the electrical power production. Cloud seeding was conducted
from April 1 to 29, 2021, during the transition of rainy and dry seasons. The Piper-Cheyenne aircraft
equipped with CoSAT-1000 hygroscopic flares departed Silangit Airport for the daily seeding missions.
The seed clouds are selected carefully to meet seeding criteria using radar monitoring. Evaluation
of activity results using rainfall data taken from GSMaP data using the Target Only Statistical Method.
Actual and historical rainfall data (2001–2020) are taken from GSMaP data. According to this study,
precipitation has increased by 36.3%. The spatial distribution of rainfall demonstrates an upward trend,
with greater values observed in the eastern region of Lake Toba. Cloud seeding has also increased
Lake Toba’s level by 8.5 cm. In addition, it has also produced an additional inflow of 5.29 m3/second,
equivalent to a water volume of 13,254,624 m3, comparable to 15,905,548.80 kWh. It is hoped that
the outcomes of this work will help provide food and energy security by supplying water to dams
in Indonesia.