Aerosol effects on the vertical structure of precipitation in East China

In this paper, we examine the aerosol effects on the vertical structure of precipitation in East China by matching GPM DPR (Global Precipitation Measurement Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar) and MERRA-2 (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Versions2) datasets. It was found that the increase of aerosol will obviously increase the precipitation frequency when AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) ≤ 0.5, but the excessive aerosol suppresses the precipitation frequency when AOD > 0.5 in some regions. The AOD obviously enhances the radar echo intensity of precipitation and has a stronger impact on convective precipitation. The correlation between AOD and rain rate, and that between AOD and STH (storm top height) are different in different regions of East China. The aerosol reduces the mean droplet concentration in most regions except NC (Northeast China). In most cases, aerosol increases the effective radius of precipitation and has a higher impact on convective precipitation.