The effects of aerosols under special terrain on lightning activities in Sichuan Basin (SB) is studied using the cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning data and aerosol optical depth (AOD) data from 2010 to 2018. Interesting results show that the topographic drop plays an important role in the process of aerosol affecting lightning.The great topographic drop in the western SB is conducive to the production of CG lightning. Both the CG lightning production and AOD in the northwest and southwest of the basin decrease in fluctuation during the study period. It can be inferred that the reduction of aerosol results in the decrease of lightning activity. Due to the topographic drop in the northwest of the basin is greater than that in the southwest, the correlation of 0.64 between AOD and CG lightning in the northwest of the basin is larger than that of 0.31 in the southwest. Since the lightning activity in SB generally occurs at night, the aerosol-radiation interaction (ARI) has an insignificant influence on the occurrence of convection. Under this condition, it can be inferred that the aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) are dominant over SB region, which could better support the decrease of lightning production.
 

Aerosol, Lightning, Sichuan Basin, Convective available potential energy, Surface temperature, Mid-level relative humidity