Malaysia Turns To Cloud-Seeding To Combat Smog From Forest Fires

As forest fires rage in the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the smoke from the incineration has reached Malaysia causing unhealthy smog levels. Malaysian officials are willing to take drastic steps and use cloud-seeding to hopefully improve air quality.

Cloud-seeding is a weather-modification process normally used to induce rain from clouds by spraying chemicals into them that will promote the formation of ice crystals. The crystals will grow and succumb to gravity as drops of water. The most common chemicals used are silver iodide, potassium iodide, dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) and even liquid propane.

The biggest requirement for seeding clouds is that there must be clouds that have enough water vapor in them to condense. With low humidity, the ice crystals will simply evaporate back into the air. Critics of cloud-seeding worry that the added chemicals may harm the environment and that it will not have much effect in reducing the smog.

Southeast Asia is in the middle of their dry season and Malaysia’s proximity to the equator makes for a very hot dry climate. The conditions are about the same in Indonesia where farmers will burn the land to clear it for various crops. The prevailing winds then carry the smoke and particulates to their neighboring countries. Relief usually comes when monsoon season arrives in late September or early October.

Gary Theseira, a special functions officer with the environment ministry in Malaysia reported to AFP that the pollutant index is at "very unhealthy levels.” He went on to say, "It is extremely severe in Kuching,” a city with half a million people located in Eastern Malaysia.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Dwikorita Karnawati, the chairwoman of Indonesia’s climate agency (abbreviated as BMKG) took issue with Malaysia and Singapore’s reports that smog in their countries was from its forest fires. She stated that other forest fires had been seen in Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, East Timor, and Thailand.

To their credit, Indonesian officials have sent thousands of extra firefighters to extinguish the flames and prevent a repeat of 2015, where wildfires covered the region in a haze for weeks and were described by some as the worst in two decades. Facing pressure from its neighbors, Indonesian leader Joko Widodo warned that officials would be fired if they failed to stamp out forest fires.

Singapore was also in the path of the smoke and haze. It's National Environment Agency (NEA) advised citizens, “Given the air quality forecast for the next 24 hours, healthy persons should reduce prolonged or strenuous outdoor physical exertion. Persons who are not feeling well, especially the elderly and children, and those with chronic heart or lung conditions, should seek medical attention.”