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Abstract. The climatic and health effects of aerosols are strongly dependent on the intra-annual variations in their loading and properties. While the seasonal variations of regional aerosol optical depth (AOD) have been extensively studied, understanding the temporal variations in aerosol vertical distribution and particle types is also important for an accurate estimate of aerosol climatic effects. In this paper, we combine the observations from four satellite-borne sensors and several ground-based networks to investigate the seasonal variations of aerosol column loading, vertical distribution, and particle types over three populous regions: the Eastern United States (EUS), Western Europe (WEU), and Eastern and Central China (ECC). In all three regions, column AOD, as well as AOD at heights above 800m, peaks in summer/spring, probably due to accelerated formation of secondary aerosols and hygroscopic growth. In contrast, AOD below 800m peaks in winter over WEU and ECC regions because more aerosols are confined to lower heights due to the weaker vertical mixing. In the EUS region, AOD below 800m shows two maximums, one in summer and the other in winter. The temporal trends in low-level AOD are consistent with those in surface fine particle (PM_2.5) concentrations. AOD due to fine particles ( < 0.7µm diameter) is much larger in spring/summer than in winter over all three regions. However, the coarse mode AOD ( > 1.4µm diameter), generally shows small variability, except that a peak occurs in spring in the ECC region due to the prevalence of airborne dust during this season. When aerosols are classified according to sources, the dominant type is associated with anthropogenic air pollution, which has a similar seasonal pattern as total AOD. Dust and sea-spray aerosols in the WEU region peak in summer and winter, respectively, but do not show an obvious seasonal pattern in the EUS region. Smoke aerosols, as well as absorbing aerosols, present an obvious unimodal distribution with a maximum occurring in summer over the EUS and WEU regions, whereas they follow a bimodal distribution with peaks in August and March (due to crop residue burning) over the ECC region. 

Abstract Aerosol‐cloud‐precipitation interactions represent one of the most significant uncertainties in climate simulation and projection. In particular, the impact of aerosols on precipitation is highly uncertain due to limited and conflicting observational evidence. A major challenge is to distinguish the effects of different types of aerosols on precipitation associated with deep convective clouds, which produces most of the precipitation in East Asia. Here, we use 9‐yr observations from multiple satellite‐borne sensors and find that the occurrent frequency of heavy rain increases while that of light rain decreases with the increase of aerosol optical depth (AOD) for dust and polluted continental aerosol types. For average hourly precipitation amount, elevated smoke tends to suppress deep convective precipitation, while dust and polluted continental aerosols enhance precipitation mainly through the invigoration of deep convection. The invigoration effect is more significant for clouds with higher cloud base temperature (CBT), while no significant invigoration is observed when CBT is <12°C. A great contrast is found for the response of average hourly precipitation amount to aerosols over ocean and land. While the prevailing continental aerosol types other than smoke increase precipitation, the marine aerosols first enhance and then inhibit precipitation with the increase of AOD. Moreover, our analysis indicates that the above‐mentioned enhancement and inhibition effects on precipitation are mainly caused by aerosols themselves, rather than by the covariation of meteorological factors. These observed relationships between different aerosol types and precipitation frequency and amount provide valuable constraints on the model forecasting of precipitation.