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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2773</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Multi-year characterization of low volatility vapors in a boreal forest</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Chengfeng</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5733-9131</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Peräkylä</surname>
<given-names>Otso</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ahonen</surname>
<given-names>Lauri</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2534-6898</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ylivinkka</surname>
<given-names>Ilona</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5591-4876</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Keronen</surname>
<given-names>Petri</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5019-0904</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Worsnop</surname>
<given-names>Douglas R.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Petäjä</surname>
<given-names>Tuukka</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1881-9044</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kulmala</surname>
<given-names>Markku</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3464-7825</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ehn</surname>
<given-names>Mikael</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0215-4893</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sarnela</surname>
<given-names>Nina</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1874-3235</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research/Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 00014,  Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Nanjing-Helsinki Institute in atmospheric and Earth System Sciences, Nanjing University, Suzhou, 210008, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Aerodyne Research, Billerica, MA 01821, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>15</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>33</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Chengfeng Liu et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2773/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2773/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2773/egusphere-2026-2773.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2773/egusphere-2026-2773.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Atmospheric low volatility vapors play an essential role in aerosol particle formation, growth, and cloud condensation nuclei production, thereby influencing climate. While intensive measurements have been carried out in different locations, little is known about their seasonal variability due to a lack of long-term measurements. To address this gap, we present nearly 4 years of continuous observations of low volatility vapors in a boreal forest measured using a NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;- atmospheric pressure interface time-of flight (MION-Api-TOF) mass spectrometer. Our results reveal the seasonal variation in the concentration, molecular composition, formation mechanism and volatility distribution of highly oxygenated organic molecules (HOMs). We show that while temperature-dependent terpene emissions regulate the overall seasonal abundance of HOMs, distinct formation pathways govern their diurnal profiles: monoterpene-derived monomers peak during the day due to the availability of precursors and oxidants, whereas their dimers peak at night driven by low concentrations of terminating species (NO and HO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) and extended RO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; radical lifetimes. We observed differing seasonal changes across different HOMs species and, although C&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt; HOMs remains the dominant HOM species during the whole year, sesquiterpene-derived C&lt;sub&gt;15&lt;/sub&gt; HOMs shows the steepest increase during summer. Using binned Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (bin-NMF), we found that HOM composition is strongly modulated by seasonality. While monoterpene-derived HOMs containing nitrogen atoms (&amp;ldquo;CHON&amp;rdquo;) dominate during colder months, summertime chemistry is characterized by a shift toward &amp;ldquo;CHO&amp;rdquo; species and a substantial contribution from heavy terpenes (sesquiterpenes and diterpenes), which can account for 40 %&amp;ndash;80 % of the signal in the high-mass range (m/z 450&amp;ndash;700, including NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-). We also analysed the seasonal volatility distribution of HOMs and identified the primary contributors to each volatility class. Crucially, challenging the long-held assumption that monoterpene derived C&lt;sub&gt;17-20&lt;/sub&gt; HOM dimers are the most important biogenic precursors of new particle formation in the boreal forest, we found sesquiterpene-derived C&lt;sub&gt;13-15&lt;/sub&gt; HOMs and C&lt;sub&gt;17-20&lt;/sub&gt; HOMs have comparable contribution to Ultra-Low Volatility Organic Compounds (ULVOCs) during daytime throughout much of the year. Moreover, in spring &amp;ndash; the season with the highest NPF frequency at our measurement site, sesquiterpene-derived C&lt;sub&gt;13-15&lt;/sub&gt; HOM account for approximately 40 % of ULVOC during daytime, compared to 28 % for C&lt;sub&gt;17-20&lt;/sub&gt; HOMs. Our findings provide critical new insights into the seasonal dynamics of HOM composition and their broader atmospheric implications.</p>
</abstract>
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