Head of Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, M.Sc, Ph.D., said the need of weather information that is given accurately, quickly, and on time increasing; this means that a complete and detailed weather information is much needed by society.
Due to this demand, updating of observation technology, processing, analysis, and knowledge improvement is required to support the speed and accuracy of weather information. Hence, the Agency has launched National Digital Forecast based on districts.
“We recently launched tools with new algorithm and modelling that are utilised for up to the district level, but this has just been applied in Jakarta and South Sumatra for the hosting of Asean Games,” she said in UGM Graduate School during a Seminar and Workshop on Monday (3/4).
According to Dwikorita, the innovation made by the BMKG was expected to cover areas from regency level to district level and by mid-2018 the tool is expected to be up and running.
“Now we’re working hard to meet the target of mid-year to have all districts of Indonesia covered. We prepare 6000 spots of weather monitoring for this purpose,” she said.
Dwikorita said BMKG was also developing forecast based impact while for quick wins, BMKG continues to build big data analytic and artificial intelligence.
“Therefore, to support these goals, studies done by universities, among them UGM, are important to do, hence big data can be used to improve other areas as well such as food security, health, etc,” she added.
Prof. Ir. Siti Malkamah, M.Sc., Ph.D, Dean of UGM Graduate School, revealed that weather and climate were now difficult to predict. Many things were affected by the ever changing weather and climate scientifically and practically.