Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Weather forecast application in smartphones is often a mainstay feature for Indonesian people to find out information related to daily weather. However, many people find that the weather forecast provided by the application is wrong. Why is that?
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) revealed that weather forecast data and information in Indonesia delivered by a number of smartphone applications is often inaccurate. The reason, according to the Head of BMKG Dwikorita Karnawati, is because the source of the data and information displayed is global.
“Not a few people think the data and information provided comes from BMKG because it displays information about the weather in Indonesia, even though after tracing it, the data and information comes from institutions outside Indonesia, not from official government institutions,” said Dwikorita, quoted from an official statement. on the BMKG website, Monday (23/10/2023).
BMKG Deputy Meteorologist, Guswanto, explained that the cause of the low level of accuracy in weather applications on non-government smartphones is global data which is processed through mathematical modeling and downscaled specifically for the Indonesian region.
Guswanto said that global data is weather data that comes from countries around the world that are members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
“Including BMKG which always sends data to WMO automatically via a satellite communications network to be compiled into global data. However, it needs to be understood that the data and information sent by BMKG is only limited to data from 59 observation stations in Indonesia, the majority of which come from Java and Sumatra ,” explained Guswanto.
Furthermore, Guswanto revealed that after the data and information from BMKG was received, non-government institutions would process, model and downscale data to produce weather forecasts in Indonesian cities.
“The limited data is of course unable to represent weather and climate conditions throughout Indonesia,” said Guswanto
In connection with Guswanto’s explanation, Dwikorita said that global modeling which downscales the data is not accurate enough to represent the factual conditions in Indonesia which are very complex and dynamic.
Moreover, Indonesia’s weather and climate conditions are greatly influenced by the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, as well as the Asian Continent and the Australian Continent.
“In addition, Indonesia is an archipelagic country crossed by the equator with complex topographic conditions. This reality of course greatly influences the dynamics of weather and climate in Indonesia,” explained Dwikora.
Thus, Dwikorita emphasized that the weather forecast in Indonesia which can be a benchmark for people’s activities is data officially issued by the BMKG.
Because, BMKG is the only official Indonesian institution that has the authority to provide weather forecasts for the public in Indonesia, in accordance with Law (UU) Number 31 of 2009 concerning Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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