Abstrac: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used to carry on portable instruments to measure vertical profiles of temperature, specific humidity, and particulate matter under different haze-polluted weather conditions in Nanjing from December 22, 2017 to January 18, 2018. The study is aimed to assess the impact of aerosol radiative effect on the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and entrainment zone structures as well as their evolution between one day with heavy haze pollution and another with good air quality. Vertical profiles of potential temperature, water vapor, and PM2.5 concentrations are characterized by performing detailed analyses on UAV-measured vertical profiles and surface observations including surface heat flux, 2-m air temperature, specific humidity, winds, and major air pollutants (e.g., O3, PM2.5) under different air pollution conditions. Results indicate that aerosols reduce surface-reaching solar radiation and surface sensible heat flux, postpone the development of the ABL, enhance the atmospheric stability near surface, decrease the ABL height, and exacerbate air pollution. The maximum concentrations of PM2.5 and the largest increase rate were observed at the top of the ABL rather than near surface. Furthermore, aerosol radiative effect imposes an important impact on entrainment and its characteristic parameters. The entrainment-zone depth increases with increasing surface PM2.5 concentrations, and entrainment rate normalized with convective velocity does not follow -1 power function with the convective Richardson number under heavy haze or PM2.5 pollution conditions, which is consistent with the findings by the large-eddy simulation studies. The study indicates that aerosol radiative effect must be included in the ABL and entrainment parameterization schemes to further improve numerical predictions of weather and air quality under heavy pollution conditions.