The interactions between aerosol and clouds have an important impact on the climate system and are significant challenges in climate research. Previous studies discussed the interactions between aerosols and water clouds, but the influence of aerosols on ice clouds was not considered. The present study examined four regions in the northern and southern hemispheres to determine the influence of aerosols on ice clouds from January 2010 to December 2016; the global distribution of ice clouds was also studied. This study applied the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) ice clouds product level-3 data (CAL_LID_ L3_Ice_Cloud) and aerosol product level-3 data (CAL_LID_L3_APro) and moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud product level-3 data (MOD08_D3) to analyze the influence of aerosols on ice clouds and the global distribution of ice clouds from January 2010 to December 2016. Satellites are a useful tool to detect ice clouds because the thin optical depth, height of ice clouds, aircraft, and ground-based remote sensing are difficult to observe. The four regions were divided into clean and contaminated areas based on the differences in the aerosol sample numbers. The main conclusions were as follows. The latitude is closely related to the distribution of ice clouds. The highest number of ice cloud samples was observed in the high altitude area near the tropics. The maximum number of ice cloud samples and the height of the maximum number decreased gradually as the latitude increased. Different ice cloud samples were obtained from the northern and southern hemispheres. The aerosols showed a maximum near the ground at low latitudes, which was symmetrical at the equator. Aerosols can develop to approximately five kilometers in the northern hemisphere, whereas they develop at approximately three kilometers in the southern hemisphere. The trend of aerosols was consistent with ice clouds; there was an inverse relationship between ice water content and the effective radius of the ice clouds with time. The trend of aerosols did not correspond well to the ice water content and the effective radius of ice clouds. The clean area showed a large aerosol optical thickness due to sea salt particles, but this did not affect the optical thickness of smaller ice clouds in that area. Aerosols promoted ice cloud formation from 0 ℃ to -10 ℃ and -20 ℃ to -40 ℃. The ice water content and effective radius of the ice cloud increased with decreasing temperature. The ice water content and the effective radius of the ice cloud were smaller in the contaminated area than in the clean area.