Abstract:The knowledge on measurement-based spatial-temporal distributions of summertime cloud water contents is greatly important for numerical weather prediction, climate projection, and weather modification experiment. By using the data provided by CloudSat, the study examines the vertical, geographic, and monthly variations of cloud water content over China during the summers of 2006-2008. Results show the significant influences of the Tibetan Plateau topography and East Asian summer monsoon on formation, vertical and geographic distributions of monthly average cloud water content. In the regions of central China (27°N-35°N), monthly average liquid cloud water contents in the middle and upper layers of the tropospheric atmosphere are remarkably larger than those in southern and northern China regions. There are two peaks in the vertical profiles of monthly average liquid cloud water contents, which may result from combined effect of large-scale atmospheric parameter, the Tibetan Plateau topography and East Asian summer monsoon. The high values of monthly average ice water contents are mostly concentrated in the layer of 6-18 km above sea level, namely the upper tropospheric atmosphere. The revealed features of monthly average cloud water content can provide baseline information for the further researches on weather and climate models improvement, weather modification, and cloud-radiation-climate interaction.