Review of Land Fires and Smoke Haze Situation for First Fortnight of August 2019
1.1 Under the prevailing dry conditions, significant hotspot activities persisted in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Moderate to dense smoke haze continued to emanate from persistent hotspot clusters detected in Riau and Jambi. Isolated hotspots with smoke plumes were also detected in South Sumatra. The prevailing southerly and southeasterly winds transported some smoke haze toward the Straits of Malacca.
1.2 In Kalimantan, hotspot activities with smoke haze continued to be detected in Central, West and South Kalimantan. In particular, moderate to dense smoke haze was observed from the persistent hotspot clusters in West Kalimantan, and smoke haze emanating from these hotspots was blown by the prevailing southeasterly winds into Sarawak. Moderate to dense smoke haze was also observed near Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan.
1.3 Isolated hotspots with smoke plumes were also detected in Sarawak. For a few days, smoke plumes from hotspots in Miri, Sarawak were blown eastwards toward Brunei.
Figure 1: Himawari-8 satellite image showing moderate to dense smoke haze from hotspots detected in central and southern Sumatra.
Figure 2: Himawari-8 satellite image showing moderate to dense smoke haze from persistent hotspots near Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. Smoke plumes were also observed in West and South Kalimantan. Smoke haze in West Kalimantan was blown into Sarawak by the prevailing winds. In Sarawak, smoke plumes from hotspots in Miri were blown eastwards toward Brunei.