Impact of Anthropogenic Heat Release on the Energy Balance of the Earth-Atmosphere System

With the global population growth and economic development, human production and living consume more and more energy and release more and more heat into the atmosphere, and its influence on the earth-atmosphere system is intensifying. The extent to which the heat released by humans affects the energy balance of the earth-atmosphere system remains one of the focus issues of climate change science. This paper estimated the global anthropogenic heat release from 1965 to 2017 based on the consumption of non-renewable energy and bioenergy, assessed the climate forcing generated by global anthropogenic heat release, and calculated the impact of anthropogenic heat release on the energy balance of the earth-atmosphere system based on the radiation balance model of the earth-atmosphere system. The results showed that the climate forcing of anthropogenic heat release increased from about 0.050 W·m^-2 in 1965 to 0.167 W·m^-2 in 2017, and the contribution rate of bio-heat was about 1/3. The anthropogenic heat released changed the energy balance of the earth-atmosphere system and warmed the atmosphere and the earth surface, causing their temperature to rise, which becomes more and more obvious with the economic development. In 2017, the anthropogenic heat release increased the surface and atmospheric temperatures by approximately 0.0284°C and 0.0506°C, respectively, the contribution rate of anthropogenic heat release to global warming during the 15-year period from 1995, 1996 and 1997 was 3.77%, 3.64% and 7.57%, respectively. With development of social economy and increase of population, the anthropogenic heat release in 2030 and 2040 will increase the surface temperature by 0.0318 °C and 0.0342 °C, and increase the atmospheric temperature by 0.0565 °C and 0.0607 °C, respectively. This means that the anthropogenic heat release can have a significant impact on the global climate and is a factor that cannot be ignored in the global climate change attribution research.