Observing Indonesian Seas : Challenges, applications and ways forward

Sustainable observation in vast area of Indonesian seas has been a priority for BMKG since decades ago. Based on scientific goals, the plan has been to advance our capability to understand and to predict the state of the sea that affect weather and climate of Indonesian coastal areas. The observation has been conducted using new technology of advance equipment to collect the ocean data. Currently we have 5 Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, 3 High Frequency (HF) Radar, 1 Wave Recorder, 34 port Marine Automatic Weather Station (MAWS), 18 Ship MAWS, and 4 oil rig MAWS placed around Indonesian seas. The data collected has been partially supporting the operation of Ocean Forecasting System (OFS) in BMKG. There are three operational products: INAWave (Indonesian Wave), INAFlows (Indonesian Flows), and INACIFS (Indonesian Coastal Inundation Forecast System). We use the input model of NCEP operational Global Forecast System of 0.25 by 0.25 global latitude longitude grid. The validation has been done between observation data and the OFS models with mixed results. Future plan will be narrowing the gap of monitoring equipment through Indonesian seas. In 5 years, we will have 18 HF Radar, 40 Surface Ocean Drifter, 40 Profiling Floats, and a surface and sub surface glider. The goal is to assimilate the observation data into the OFS models and to create more accurate forecast to our community.