Investigating the relationship between Aerosol Optical Depth and Precipitation over Southeast Asia with Relative Humidity as an influencing factor

Atmospheric aerosols influence precipitation by changing the earth’s energy budget and cloud properties. A number of studies have reported correlations between aerosol properties and precipitation data. Despite previous research, it is still hard to quantify the overall effects that aerosols have on precipitation as multiple influencing factors such as relative humidity (RH) can distort the observed relationship between aerosols and precipitation. Thus, in this study, both satellite-retrieved and reanalysis data were used to investigate the relationship between aerosols and precipitation in the Southeast Asia region from 2001 to 2015, with RH considered as a possible influencing factor. Different analyses in the study indicate that a positive correlation was present between Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and precipitation over northern Southeast Asia region during the autumn and the winter seasons, while a negative correlation was identified over the Maritime Continent during the autumn season. Subsequently, a partial correlation analysis revealed that while RH influences the long-term negative correlations between AOD and precipitation, it did not significantly affect the positive correlations seen in the winter season. The result of this study provides additional evidence with respect to the critical role of RH as an influencing factor in AOD-precipitation relationship over Southeast Asia.