A new global gridded anthropogenic heat flux dataset with high spatial resolution and long-term time series

Exploring global anthropogenic heat and its effects on climate change is necessary and meaningful to gain a better understanding of human-environment interactions caused by growing energy consumption. However, the variation in regional energy consumption and limited data availability make estimating long-term global anthropogenic heat flux (AHF) challenging. Thus, using high-resolution population density data (30 arc-second) and a top-down inventory-based approach, this study developed a new global gridded AHF dataset covering 1970-2050 based historically on energy consumption data from the British Petroleum (BP); future projections were built on estimated future energy demands. The globally averaged terrestrial AHFs were estimated at 0.05, 0.13, and 0.16 W/m² in 1970, 2015, and 2050, respectively, but varied greatly among countries and regions. Multiple validation results indicate that the past and future global gridded AHF (PF-AHF) dataset has reasonable accuracy in reflecting AHF at various scales. The PF-AHF dataset has longer time series and finer spatial resolution than previous data and provides powerful support for studying long-term climate change at various scales.