INDONESIA CLIMATE

Indonesia, as a country consist of more then 13,000 islands lies on the tropical part of the hemisphere, and has the world's largest islands such as Papua 785,000 square km, Kalimantan 736.500 square km, and Sumatra 473,660 square km. Total area of Indonesia including the sea is around 5 million square km, while land only is 2,07 million km. A detailed calculation is found as follows :
Land size : 1.922.570 km²
Land without water : 1.829.570 km²
Land with water : 93.000 km²
Sea : 3.257.483 km²
With the length of shore line 54.716 kms.
Density of rain in Indonesia recorded at 1.600 milimeters per year with great variation, especially in the region of Palu central Sulawesi and Timor is only 500 milimeters. Areas with high density of rain along the year are Aceh, Sumatera Barat, Sumatera Utara, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, par of Jawa barat, Kalimantan Barat, Sulawesi Utara, Maluku Utara and Membramo delta west Papua. Every 3 or 5 years the phenomena of El-Nino happened that is the deviation of climate which causes a long dry season and very short time of rain. After the El-Nino normally followed by the phenomena of La Nina when the density and length of rain season is bigger. Yet the fact is much influenced by southern Oscillation.

The extend of north - south is from 6^o08' north to 11^o15' south. The line of equator is passing Indonesia and exactly on the town of Bonjol on West Sumatra and Pontianak city on Kalimantan island. Kalimantan, Papua and Timor islands are shared with other countries, Kalimantan is with Malaysia, Indonesian area is 539.460 square km, Papua is shared with Papaua New Guinea, Indonesia area is 421,981 square km. While Timor island on east part is an independence country as Timor l'Este since 2000. Other 2 big islands are Java 132.107 square km, Sulawesi 189.216 square km. The extend of east - west is from 95^o east to 141^o45' east, On the east par between Sulawesi and West Papua is the biggest archipelago of the world, with one also as deepest see of Banda and Maluku. This archipelagoes administrated under 2 provinces, the province of Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara. Such a wide area of Indonesian archipelago the whole land of Indonesia is strongly influenced by the sea, especially the density of moisture on the air.

In general Indonesia has two distinct seasons, wet season from September to March, and dry season, when the sun on the north of equator during March to October. The average temperature is between 28 centigrade to 30 centigrade's characterized by high moisture level. On every area a small variation can happened, for example from March to September when the sun is north of Equator the southern equator area has nice weather, bright sky, while in east Indonesia of North equator such as Maluku and West Papua got wet season, with strong waves on the sea. While Java almost the same as Bali has dry season from March to September, and west season from September to March. Sumatra island is divided by equator so the island has two different time of west and dry season in contrary to the southern equator.

Areas with more constant temperature are places on the line of equator, there is no big difference between day and night. While other areas it can be a difference of 5 to 10 centigrade between lowland and mountain areas or highland, especially during the night. At the areas such as Bali and Nusa Tenggara, a places 1000 meters above the sea level during mid of the night can be 18 centigrade during July and August. That is on island with many high mountain peaks have nice weather compared to plain island such as Kalimantan where the temperature is more higher and moisture level is heavier while during dry season is totally dry at some places very easy causing natural burning. This is also happened on the province of Riau land and islands.