RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has emphasized that Weather Modification Operations carried out in Indonesia are a measured, science-based disaster mitigation effort. According to the agency, as quoted from a press release issued on Wednesday, 28 January 2026, the measure is implemented as a parallel response to declining environmental carrying capacity and the growing threats of climate change.

BMKG stated that weather modification operations do not cause unstable weather conditions or create cold pools, nor do they shift or concentrate water in certain areas in a way that could trigger major flooding. The agency also stated that a cold pool is a completely natural meteorological phenomenon, occurring when rainwater evaporates beneath a storm cloud, cooling the air and creating a dense air mass that descends to the surface.

Furthermore, BMKG stressed that cloud seeding techniques (cold seeding) used in Weather Modification Operations do not generate new clouds, but only work on clouds that have already formed naturally. If Weather Modification Operations successfully accelerates rainfall, the resulting cold pool is physically and chemically identical to cold pools produced by natural rainfall.

“In principle, every time natural rainfall occurs without any human intervention, a cold pool will inevitably form naturally. Therefore, linking this phenomenon as a dangerous side effect of Weather Modification Operations is a scientific misconception. The reason is that Weather Modification Operations, through cloud seeding techniques (cold seeding), does not create new clouds and only works on clouds that already exist in nature,” BMKG stated.

From an energy-scale perspective, BMKG also emphasized that current human technology is not capable of building a giant atmospheric cooling system. Weather modification merely triggers natural processes in clouds that are already saturated, rather than creating new weather systems.

“From the energy scale alone, such claims cannot be justified. In terms of energy scale, current human technology is not capable of creating large-scale cold air masses. Through weather modification, humans only trigger natural processes in already saturated clouds (as practiced in Indonesia), rather than building a massive atmospheric cooling system,” it stated.

Regarding claims that weather modification operations shift rainfall to neighbouring areas and potentially cause flooding, BMKG stated that there are two main methods used to protect strategic regions. First is the Jumping Process Method, which involves seeding clouds detected as coming from the sea before they reach land, so that rainfall occurs over the waters.

Second is the Competition Method, which involves early seeding of clouds that form directly over land to disrupt their growth so they do not develop into massive Cumulonimbus clouds. Nevertheless, BMKG acknowledged that the environment’s capacity to absorb rainfall remains the main determining factor in the occurrence of flooding.