Some microphysical characteristics of cloud and precipitation over China

An overview is made about the cloud and precipitation research in Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS). Some main features of CCN, IN and microphysical characteristic parameters of clouds and precipitation in China obtained by aircraft and ground base instruments are given. The results show: (1) The CCN has different concentration and supersaturation spectra in different parts of China, the CCN concentration (S=0.5%) being 50 cm−3 for clean air and above 2000 cm−3 for polluted air. (2) The observational results of ice nuclei (IN) show the concentration under higher temperature (T> − 20°C) in the northern part of China is obviously higher than those in other places of the world. (3) The cloud microstructure generally has the continental feature. In northern China, the mean concentration of cloud droplet is 100–500 cm−3, and the LWC is usually less than 0.3 gm−3. The maximum concentration of fog droplet reached 940 cm−3 in a winter fog event. (4) The snow particle microstructure can be divided into two categories based on the crystal habits, namely, the side plane and rosette crystals generated from colder snow band, and the dendritic crystal from warmer snow cloud band. The snow particles from the two types of snow band are very different from each other, both in concentration and spectrum. This paper also provides the ice particle spectra parameters, No and λ fitted with exponential formula for different ice particle habits at different temperatures. All of these results show that the cloud microstructure are related to the macroscopic ambient conditions. The future plan is also introduced summarily.