EGUsphere EGUsphere EGUsphere EGUsphere Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/egusphere-2026-3136 Impacts of South Asian aerosol inflow over Mount Qomolangma on downstream cloud–precipitation processes through a long-range ice-crystal "seeding" effect Xu Xiangde 1 10 Cai Wenyue https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6627-0802 1 10 Zhao Tianliang 2 Yang Changjun 3 Meng Kai 4 Wu Chong 1 Dong Na 1 5 Li Yueqing 6 Wang Shunjiu 6 Liu Wenqing 7 Zhang Tianshu 7 Zhuo Ga 8 Zhang Shengjun 1 Chen Bin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8608-4131 1 Lu Chunsong 2 Chen Jinghua 2 Yang Kai 2 Xu Jianming 9 State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather Meteorological Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210044,, China Key Laboratory of Radiometric Calibration and Validation for Environmental Satellites, National Satellite Meteorological Center (National Centre for Space Weather), China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China Hebei Key Laboratory of Meteorology and Modern Economy, Hebei Provincial Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021, China Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences & Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China Heavy Rain and Drought-Flood Disaster in Plateau and Basin Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Plateau Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Chengdu 610072, China Key Laboratory of Environment Optics and Technology, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China Mêdog National Climate Observatory, Mêdog, 860700, China Shanghai Meteorological Center, Shanghai Meteorological Service, Shanghai 200030, China These authors contributed equally to this work. 23 06 2026 2026 1 23 Copyright: © 2026 Xiangde Xu et al. 2026 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3136/ The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3136/egusphere-2026-3136.pdf

Mount Qomolangma (MQ) serves as a natural laboratory for investigating aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Using satellite and comprehensive ground-based observations, we identify pronounced ice-cloud activation associated with transported exogenous aerosols. Under different large-scale atmospheric circulation regimes, ice-phase cloud activated over MQ can be efficiently transported downstream through distinct pathways, exerting a pronounced ice crystal seeding effect on cloud–precipitation conversion. The spatial patterns of these downstream pathways are highly consistent with regions of enhanced ice-phase occurrence, precipitation, and upper-tropospheric latent heat release. This study provides new insight into the downstream impacts of aerosol transport through ice seeding for cloud precipitation. The findings highlight the important role of aerosol-induced ice-phase processes in modulating cloud and precipitation systems over the “Third Pole” and its downstream regions, with significant implications for understanding downstream extreme precipitation and environment change under South Asian increasing anthropogenic influences.