Impact of Anthropogenic Heat Release on Regional Climate in Three Vast Urban Agglomerations in China

We simulated the impact of anthropogenic heat release （AHR） on the regional climate in three vast city agglomerations in China using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with nested high-resolution modeling.Based on energy consumption and high-quality land use data,we designed two scenarios to represent no-AHR and current-AHR conditions.By comparing the results of the two numerical experiments,changes of surface air temperature and precipitation due to AHR were quantified and analyzed.We concluded that AHR increases the temperature in these urbanized areas by about 0.5℃-1℃,and this increase is more pronounced in winter than in other seasons.The inclusion of AHR enhances the convergence of water vapor over urbanized areas.Together with the warming of the lower troposphere and the enhancement of ascending motions caused by AHR,the average convective available potential energy in urbanized areas is increased.Rainfall amounts in summer over urbanized areas are likely to increase and regional precipitation patterns to be altered to some extent.

Increases in Anthropogenic Heat Release from Energy Consumption Lead to More Frequent Extreme Heat Events in Urban Cities

With economic development and rapid urbanization,increases in Gross Domestic Product and population in fastgrowing cities since the turn of the 21st Century have led to increases in energy consumption.Anthropogenic heat flux released to the near-surface atmosphere has led to changes in urban thermal environments and severe extreme temperature events.To investigate the effects of energy consumption on urban extreme temperature events,including extreme heat and cold events,a dynamic representation scheme of anthropogenic heat release(AHR)was implemented in the Advanced Research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model,and AHR data were developed based on energy consumption and population density in a case study of Beijing,China.Two simulations during 1999−2017 were then conducted using the developed WRF model with 3-km resolution with and without the AHR scheme.It was shown that the mean temperature increased with the increase in AHR,and more frequent extreme heat events were produced,with an annual increase of 0.02−0.19 days,as well as less frequent extreme cold events,with an annual decrease of 0.26−0.56 days,based on seven extreme temperature indices in the city center.AHR increased the sensible heat flux and led to surface energy budget changes,strengthening the dynamic processes in the atmospheric boundary layer that reduce AHR heating efficiency more in summer than in winter.In addition,it was concluded that suitable energy management might help to mitigate the impact of extreme temperature events in different seasons.

Simulation and analysis for anthropogenic heat release

Heat balance of urban ecosystem is a key point for the study of urban climate and micro-climate pattern and its change mechanism. Urban heat island effect is becoming increasingly serious,which is mainly caused by the change of the earth's surface cover and the anthropogenic heat release. In this study,the simulation experiment for the anthropogenic heat release was designed according to the heat balance principle. A set of buildings of miniature city were used to constitute the residential area,U grooves were applied to simulate the single building,and the fluorescent lamps in the U groove were regarded as the heat sources of the anthropogenic heat release. The simulation experiment was launched with long-short wave sun photometer,sonic anemothermometer and heat flow gauge in the experiment site. Then the net solar radiation,sensible heat flux and heat flux into the ground were determined. The quantities of the anthropogenic heat release were calculated based on the heat balance principle,and were compared with the theoretical power consumption of the fluorescent lamps. The root mean square error( RMSE) of the simulation for the anthropogenic heat release reaches0. 078 W·m- 2,a comparatively high precision,which showes that the anthropogenic heat release can be accurately determined through the simulation experiments. This study provided a scientific method for the purpose of monitoring the anthropogenic heat release.