Sulfur dioxide (SO2) retrieval results obtained by the multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) have weak absorption intensity and are vulnerable to inversion bands and the state of aerosol. An inversion method for the vertical profile and vertical column density of tropospheric SO2 using ground-based MAX-DOAS is investigated. The SO2 optimum inversion band (307-330 nm) is determined by comparing the inversion errors. The differential slant column density is obtained precisely. As the state of aerosols in the atmosphere is an important factor affecting the inversion of trace gases such as SO2, a two-step inversion method is used. The first step is to retrieve the aerosol profile by measuring the differential slant column density of O4 gas. The second step is to input the aerosol profile into the radiation transmission model, and the vertical distribution profile (0-4 km) and vertical column density of the tropospheric SO2 are obtained by the vertical inversion algorithm of trace gas concentration. The 0-100 m inversion results of the SO2 profile are compared to ground point instrument data, and the comparison results demonstrate that the two techniques agree well. The study shows that MAX-DOAS is an effective method for retrieving the vertical distribution and vertical column density of tropospheric SO2.