Using 15 years of lightning stroke data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) over the western North Pacific, we investigate how aerosols modulate lightning within different regions of Tropical cyclones (TCs) and during their landfalling process. Results show that as aerosol optical depth (AOD) rises, outer rainband lightning doubles, whereas inner core lightning is substantially suppressed. The contrasting responses generally remain robust across diverse meteorological conditions and TC characteristics. As TCs approach land, lightning increases progressively in the outer rainbands but exhibits no obvious trend in the inner core. This landward enhancement closely follows the increase in AOD. These results provide the first observational evidence for how aerosols effect TCs structure revealed by previous modeling studies from a lightning perspective. More importantly, lightning enhancement in outer rainbands from clean marine environments to polluted continental area offers new support for the aerosol hypothesis for land–sea lightning contrast.