JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities planned to scatter dry ice over one of the country's worst haze-hit regions Thursday in an experimental attempt to disperse toxic smog billowing from forest and peatland fires.
An aircraft was set to release pellets of solid carbon dioxide in the air above South Sumatra province, according to the coordinating minister for political and security affairs, Dudung Abdurachman.
Unlike cloud seeding, which introduces compounds such as silver iodide into clouds to trigger rain, the dry ice is intended to "break down" haze in the lower atmosphere "so that it can rise upward," Abdurachman said.
"If this trial is successful, we will continue with other areas that are central to the haze, such as Central Kalimantan and its surroundings," he said.
The trial was to use 1.5 tons of dry ice, authorities said.
Indonesia is grappling with its most severe wildfire season in a decade, as an unusually strong El Niño has worsened drought conditions and made fires harder to extinguish.
President Prabowo Subianto has called on agencies to intensify efforts to put out the wildfires and reduce the impact of the toxic smog.
New cloud seeding operations were also scheduled in Central Kalimantan, another haze-stricken area, on Thursday and Friday. Authorities in Indonesia and neighboring Malaysia have carried out such operations for weeks.
On the ground, firefighters continued to battle out-of-control blazes, and authorities have deployed dozens of helicopters to extinguish the wildfires, though the operations have at times been hampered by poor visibility in the haze.
Residents across Kalimantan and South Sumatra are bearing the brunt of the smog, with air in many cities turning a dusty amber. Pollutants have drifted across borders to Singapore and Malaysia, raising public health concerns as air quality readings climbed to unhealthy levels.
In parts of Malaysia with especially hazy air, including Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru near Singapore, local authorities have conducted their own cloud seeding operations. Last month, Indonesia granted permission for Malaysian agencies to enter its airspace for cloud seeding along the countries' shared border.
More than one million wildfire hotspots have been recorded in Indonesia this year, burning nearly 900,000 hectares of land, according to Nusantara Atlas, an independent forest monitoring platform.
Much of the public anger has been directed at agricultural companies that burn vegetation as a cheap way to clear large tracts of land. Indonesian police have named more than 200 individuals and nine companies as suspects in connection with the fires.
