Local heat islands and vegetation losses are microclimatic consequences of global data centers

TC Chakraborty 

The explosion in cloud computing and artificial intelligence has driven a rapid expansion of data centers. While the immense energy and water consumption of these facilities is well-documented, their impacts on local microclimates remain largely unexplored. Here, using satellite-derived estimates of land surface temperature and surface greenness, we isolate the microclimate footprint of almost 10,000 data centers globally. Our findings demonstrate a clear data center heat island effect (summer mean of 1.44 °C) accompanied and primarily modulated by localized vegetation reductions. Furthermore, near-term projections of human population growth in proximity to these facilities reveal the scale of their direct and indirect human impacts. These results underscore that data centers cause local environmental modification, necessitating integrated spatial planning to mitigate impacts on surrounding communities.