Biomass burning smoke aerosols exhibit complex impacts on the temperature profile of the atmosphere and cloud development. Central Africa is a region where smoke aerosols are constantly being transported westward over the remote southeastern Atlantic Ocean. A dedicated measurement platform located on Ascension Island, maintained by the U. S. Department of Energy, observed several plumes of biomass burning smoke during the 2016 and 2017 austral burn season months. It was found that the smoke aerosols displayed different radiative properties while readily activating as cloud condensation nuclei. An anomalously strong African Easterly Jet was responsible for facilitating extreme fire conditions in 2016. During the 2017 burn season, an anomalously weaker jet led to more mixing of mineral dust and marine aerosols which were more efficient at cooling the atmosphere than in 2016.

This study investigates the microphysical properties of the Monsoon frontal cloud (MFC), which were inhomogeneous and exhibited scale differences based on observations and simulations. This research aims to better understand MFC microphysical processes, which are crucial for comprehending the precipitation mechanism during the summer of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river. The results show that the Ka-band Precipitation Radar (KPR) measured reflectivity factor (dBZKPR) agrees well with the observed reflectivity (dBZobs), with a correlation coefficient of 0.78 and a mean bias of 2.45 dBZ along the aircraft flight track, indicating the reliability of KPR for detecting and retrieving cloud microphysical properties. Based on this, four approaches were conducted to create the relationships between radar reflectivity (Z) and microphysical parameters such as liquid water content (LWC) and effective diameter (De) which were then validated. Differential precipitation and non-precipitation clouds proved effective in predicting LWC using dBZKPR, while De required the further division of LWC into seven bins at 100.5 g m-3 intervals. The empirical formulas used in this study produced results closest to observation data compared to previous studies. Detailed criteria for using these formulas were quantified, including differentiating grounded echoes and the size of the retrieved LWC values. This study sheds light on the microphysical properties of the MFC and provides insights into the precipitation mechanism of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river during the summer.