Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 9 9 2009 10.5194/acp-9-3223-2009 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/3223/2009/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/3223/2009/acp-9-3223-2009.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/3223/2009/acp-9-3223-2009.pdf 3223 3231 2009-05-18 Evidence of mineral dust altering cloud microphysics and precipitation Q.-L. Min min@asrc.cestm.albany.edu R. Li B. Lin E. Joseph S. Wang Y. Hu V. Morris F. Chang Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, USA Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center, USA NOAA Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Howard University, USA Multi-platform and multi-sensor observations are employed to investigate the impact of mineral dust on cloud microphysical and precipitation processes in mesoscale convective systems. For a given convective strength, small hydrometeors were more prevalent in the stratiform rain regions with dust than in those regions that were dust free. 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