PALEMBANG, thekabarnews.com—Indonesia has begun testing dry-ice seeding over Palembang. Authorities seek to spread thick smoke from forest and land fires (karhutla) that have disrupted visibility across South Sumatra.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) launched the atmospheric-modification trial on Thursday, Oct. 15. BNPB plans to continue the operation through Sunday, Oct. 18, before considering whether officials should deploy the method in other fire-affected regions.

Unlike conventional cloud seeding, which commonly uses sodium chloride to encourage rainfall, the experimental method releases pellets of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice).

Officials say the technique does not require rain clouds. Instead, it targets the atmospheric inversion layer that can trap smoke close to the ground.

During normal conditions, air temperatures generally fall as altitude increases. A temperature change reverses that pattern, creating a stable layer that restricts vertical air movement. Smoke and other pollutants can then accumulate near the surface.

BNPB said dry ice, which has a temperature of about minus 78.5 degrees Celsius, could cool and destabilize the inversion layer. The agency expects the process to help trapped smoke rise and spread. As a result, the process would reduce its concentration near the surface and improve visibility. However, the method spreads smoke rather than extinguishing the fires that produce it.

BNPB used a Cessna Caravan aircraft from Raden Inten II Airport in Lampung to support the trial. On the first day, the aircraft completed two sorties near Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport. It carried 800 kilograms of dry ice on each flight and released it at an altitude of about 4,500 feet.

Preliminary METAR observations cited by BNPB showed visibility increasing from approximately 650 meters to 2,800 meters after the sorties. BNPB focused the flights around the airport’s immediate operational area because dense haze had affected aviation activity.

“The series of weather-modification trials using dry ice is scheduled to continue until Oct. 18, 2026,” acting BNPB information center head Berton SP Panjaitan said.

The early improvement does not yet prove that dry-ice seeding caused the change. Wind speed, humidity and natural shifts in the inversion layer can also affect visibility.

BMKG’s airport monitoring page recorded smoke and visibility of only 600 meters at 5:30 a.m. on Friday, indicating that conditions continued to fluctuate.

Indonesia adapted the approach from Thailand, where authorities have used dry-ice seeding and cold-water spraying to address particulate pollution and weaken low-level inversion layers.

South Sumatra is one of six provinces prioritized in the national wildfire response. BNPB reported that response teams were still handling fires across 663.61 hectares in the six provinces as of Oct. 13, with Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra receiving the greatest attention.

BNPB will assess visibility records, atmospheric measurements and operational results after the trial. Any wider deployment will depend on that evaluation. Meanwhile, ground crews and water-bombing aircraft continue working to suppress the underlying fires.