BMKG Rebuffs News of Haze Reaching Malaysian Peninsula

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) denied news suggesting the existence of transboundary haze in the Malaysian peninsula from the Sumatran region. The agency insists that this is backed by satellite monitoring reports.

“It is not like the news reports by foreign mass media,” said the agency's Deputy of Meteorology Mulyono R. Prabowo on Sunday, September 8.

He said that agency detected at least 2,510 hotspots spread across Southeast Asia that are monitored by satellites from September 4 – September 8, such as the Terra Aqua MODIS, SNPP, NOAA20, and Himawari-8.

According to him, the hot spots in Southeast Asia during that time saw fluctuations that tend to rise in number. On September 4^th, the agency detected 727 hot spots but saw that number fall to 516 hot spots just the following day.

This number increased on September 6^th with notable 619 hot spots and increased to 648 hot spots on September 7^th.

“These hotspots were spread across Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Timor Leste, and Thailand,” said Mulyono.

The BMKG Deputy said that the transboundary haze was not detected from Sumatra to the Malaysian peninsula.

ANWAR SISWADI (CONTRIBUTOR)