Impact of anthropogenic heat emissions on meteorological parameters and air quality in Beijing using a high-resolution model simulation

Anthropogenic heat emissions (AHE) play an important role in modulating the atmospheric thermodynamic and kinetic properties within the urban planetary boundary layer, particularly in densely populated megacities like Beijing. In this study, we estimate the AHE by using a Large-scale Urban Consumption of energY (LUCY) model and further couple LUCY with a high-resolution regional chemical transport model to evaluate the impact of AHE on atmospheric environment in Beijing. In areas with high AHE, the 2-m temperature (T2) increased to varying degrees and showed distinct diurnal and seasonal variations with maxima in night and winter. The increase in 10-m wind speed (WS10) and planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) exhibited slight diurnal variations but showed significant seasonal variations. Further, the systematic continuous precipitation increased by 2.1 mm due to the increase in PBLH and water vapor in upper air. In contrast, the precipitation in local thermal convective showers increased little because of the limited water vapor. Meanwhile, the PM2.5 reduced in areas with high AHE because of the increase in WS10 and PBLH and continued to reduce as the pollution levels increased. In contrast, in areas where prevailing wind direction was opposite to that of thermal circulation caused by AHE, the WS10 reduced, leading to increased PM2.5. The changes of PM2.5 illustrated that a reasonable AHE scheme might be an effective means to improve the performance of PM2.5 simulation. Besides, high AHE aggravated the O3 pollution in urban areas due to the reduction in NOx.