KLHK Detects 487 Hotspots in Indonesia, Most in Riau (Thursday, March 19, 2026)

Based on the SiPongi forest and land fire monitoring system of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), monitoring over the last 24 hours shows 487 hotspots detected in Indonesia. This number of hotspots is an increase of 96 points compared to the previous period.

The data is the result of imagery from Terra/Aqua, SNPP, and NOAA satellites accessed on Thursday (March 19, 2026) at 11:47 WIB. Of the 487 detected hotspots, 10 have a high confidence level, 419 are medium-scale, and 58 are low-scale.

Hotspot confidence levels are divided into 3 scales. The low scale ranges from 0 - 29, medium scale 30 - 79, and high scale 80 - 100. The higher the hotspot confidence level, the higher the possibility of forest and land fires occurring in a particular area.

(Read: How Can Residents Identify Clean Air Amid Poor Air Quality?)

The most detected hotspots are in Riau with 212 points. Riau Islands ranks second with 38 hotspots. Aceh is in third place with 37 hotspots.

32 hotspots were detected in West Kalimantan, South Sulawesi follows with 25 hotspots, and North Sumatra and North Maluku have 23 and 21 detected hotspots respectively.

Hotspots are coordinate points in an area with a higher surface temperature than the surrounding area, and do not represent the number of forest and land fire incidents.

However, a large number of clustered hotspots in an area indicates the occurrence of forest and land fires. This means that remote sensing satellite-detected hotspot data remains the most effective for monitoring forest and land fires over large areas.

(Read: Indonesia's Air Quality Improved Slightly in 2021)