Sizes of atmospheric particulate matters determine the outcomes of their interactions with rainfall processes

Abstract

Environmental sustainability remains at risk, given the coupled trends of economic development with air pollution. The risk is even greater in the water-stressed world, given the debated suppression effects of air pollutants on rain formation. Here, we tested this suppression in the water-stressed South Africa, by fitting generalized linear models to a 21-year historical dataset of rainfall and air pollutants. Some gaseous pollutants and PM10 show a significant negative correlation with rainfall, perhaps due to the temperature inversion they cause, which might prevent the upward rise of humid air and convective clouds to grow high enough to produce rain. Surprisingly, as opposed to PM10, we found a rather positive significant effect of PM2.5. Altogether, our study confirms the hypothesis of rain prevention by pollutants but provides some nuances that are dependent on the size of air particle matters. To achieve environmental sustainability while growing the economy, we can only rely on emission purification technologies to strike this trade-off.