LAUSR

Despite their important contribution in the economic domain, active heat-releasing industrial plants have significant implications for human health and climate change. Apart from the negative impacts of greenhouse gases, the heat emissions from energy intensive industries play a crucial role in land surface energy balance and urban ecosystem impact. However, a spatially detailed dataset of various heat-releasing industrial sectors and large-scale characterization of heat emissions from industrial sources have not been reported yet. In this study, a dataset of heat-releasing industries was established using a national detection map of thermal anomalies produced by a novel and more accurate method employing daily nighttime VIIRS thermal infrared images corresponding to one year. Subsequently, we quantified and described the dimensional features of heat radiation fluxes of China's industrial plants. A total of 12114 industrial objects were structured in a two level hierarchical dataset of heat-releasing industries, representing a magnitude of at least one order higher than the number enumerated in the state-of-the-art inventory of industrial heat sources across China. The satellite observations helped more completely characterize industrial heat plumes, which represent the industrial heat radiation fluxes with higher levels of densities that prevail in the central-eastern part of China having spatial clustering islands. Our results could be used to inform policy and environmental management in relation to meaningful dynamic industrial supervision, targeting extreme polluters and differentiated emission mitigation measurements. These findings would help enhance the effectiveness of energy-intensive industry management strategies and realize better health and environmental impact assessment.