Abstract
Recently, heavy localized rainfall has caused serious problems in Japan. Furthermore, anthropogenic sensible heat enhances such rainfall. Therefore, weather forecasts that include details on anthropogenic heat distribution across Japan are required. In this study, we estimated detailed anthropogenic heat distributions using statistics and geographic system information (GIS) data that are available nationwide. Data on anthropogenic sensible heat, anthropogenic latent heat, and warm drainage exhaust heat were obtained at a spatial resolution of approximately 1 km across Japan. Anthropogenic heat was estimated for residential, business, industrial and automotive components in the country. We compared the annual total anthropogenic heat for each prefecture with the annual final energy consumption obtained from statistics; the obtained correlation coefficient was 0.88. Therefore, we conclude that the estimated anthropogenic heat corresponds to the energy consumption in each prefecture. In future studies, the estimated anthropogenic sensible heat distribution should be introduced into numerical meteorological models (cloud-resolving meteorological models) used for short-term predictions.
