The cloud vertical structure (CVS) over any place significantly impacts the boundary layer dynamics and horizontal/vertical temperature gradient at local scale, whereas on the synoptic scale it plays a crucial role in determining the atmospheric circulation and hydrological cycle. There is a notable lack of long-term comprehensive studies on CVS over Indian subcontinent. Here, we have done a comprehensive study of CVS over the Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP), in which we have studied the statistics of CVS over various urban agglomerations (UAs) lying within the IGP (using radiosonde data) coupled with CVS of the entire IGP (EIGP) which majorly includes rural and suburban areas (using CloudSat profiling radar data) from 2006 to 2017. Seasonal analysis shows that CVS is much different in monsoon season as compared to other seasons over both EIGP and UAs. The frequency of single layer clouds is ~91%, 87%, 76% and 91% over EIGP and ~ 81%, 80%, 58% and 82% over UAs in winter, pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, respectively. In the monsoon season, both data show significant increase in multi-layer clouds frequency, however, the frequency of multi-layer clouds is significantly higher over UAs (>40%) compared to that over EIGP (<26%). The average depth of single-layer clouds over EIGP (2.3–5 km) is higher than that over UAs (1.8–2.7 km). The average cloud top height of single layer clouds is slightly lower over UAs (6.4–7.8 km) as compared to EIGP (7.3–11.2 km), except in pre-monsoon. We infer that though the aerosol induced warming inhibits the convective cloud formation over UAs; aerosols tend to invigorate the convective clouds whenever sufficient moisture is present for cloud formation. The analysis of present study would be helpful in many applications related to radiation budget and climate studies.

任何地方的云垂直结构（CVS）都会显着影响局部尺度的边界层动力学和水平/垂直温度梯度，而在天气尺度上，它在确定大气环流和水文循环方面起着至关重要的作用。明显缺乏对印度次大陆 CVS 的长期综合研究。在这里，我们对印度-恒河平原 (IGP) 上的 CVS 进行了全面研究，其中我们研究了 IGP 内各种城市群 (UA) 的 CVS 统计数据（使用无线电探空仪数据）以及整个 IGP (EIGP)，主要包括 2006 年至 2017 年的农村和郊区（使用 CloudSat 剖面雷达数据）。季节性分析表明，季风季节的 CVS 与 EIGP 和 UA 的其他季节相比有很大不同。在冬季、季风前、季风和季风后季节，单层云的频率在 EIGP 上约为 91%、87%、76% 和 91%，在 UA 上约为 81%、80%、58% 和 82%，分别。在季风季节，这两个数据都显示多层云频率显着增加，但是，与 EIGP（<26%）相比，UAs（>40%）的多层云频率显着更高。EIGP（2.3-5 km）上的单层云平均深度高于UA（1.8-2.7 km）。与 EIGP（7.3-11.2 公里）相比，UA（6.4-7.8 公里）上的单层云的平均云顶高度略低，但季风前除外。我们推断，虽然气溶胶引起的变暖抑制了 UA 上空对流云的形成；只要有足够的水分形成云，气溶胶就会使对流云活跃起来。当前研究的分析将有助于与辐射收支和气候研究相关的许多应用。