The effects of aerosol on development of thunderstorm electrification: A numerical study

•The effects of different aerosol background on electrification of thunderstorm are investigated using the WRF model.•Increasing aerosol concentration results in enhancement in electrification process.•Increasing aerosol loading leads to increase in liquid water content, resulting in change of the charge structure.

The effects of aerosol on electrification of an idealized supercell storm are investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with electrification and discharge parameterizations and an explicit treatment of aerosol activation. It is found that the microphysical and electric processes of the thunderstorm are distinctly different under different aerosol background. Enhancing aerosol loading increases growth rate of snow and graupel particles, and leads to higher concentration of ice particles. Increasing aerosol concentration also results in enhancement in electrification process, due to more ice particles participating in the electrification process in the polluted case. In the clean case, the charge structure maintained dipolarity throughout the simulation, while in the polluted case the charge structure transformed from dipolarity at the initial stage of charging separation to the structure of a negative charge region above the main positive and the main negative charge centers at the later stage. A detailed analysis of the microphysical processes shows that increasing aerosol loading led to more liquid water content and higher rime accretion rate above the freezing level, which was in favor of graupel charge positively and ice crystal and snow charge negatively in this region. In a word, increasing aerosol loading leads to increased cloud water content, resulting in a new negative charge region developed above the main positive charge center.