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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-2026-4106</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Combustion-Derived Organic Aerosols Enhance PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt; Oxidative Potential in a Medium-Sized North China Plain City</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Cai</surname>
<given-names>Jing</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>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Yongchun</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6758-2151</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zheng</surname>
<given-names>Feixue</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ding</surname>
<given-names>Dian</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Du</surname>
<given-names>Wei</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7890-3099</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yuan</surname>
<given-names>Liang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zou</surname>
<given-names>Yingjie</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Suolang</surname>
<given-names>Lazong</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lu</surname>
<given-names>Rongxiang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Li</surname>
<given-names>Wanwei</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Chao</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>Fan</surname>
<given-names>Xiaolong</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zha</surname>
<given-names>Qiaozhi</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Luan</surname>
<given-names>Mengxiao</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Jiandong</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3000-622X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, Nanjing University of  Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, School of  Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Aerosol and Haze Laboratory, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and  Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>National Observation and Research Station for Atmospheric Processes and Environmental Change in  Yangtze River Delta, Nanjing, 210023, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Chengdu Plain Urban Meteorology and Environment Observation and Research Station of Sichuan  Province, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu  610225, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Shandong Weifang Provincial Eco-Environmental Monitoring Center, Weifang, 261053, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>School of Public Health, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang 261053, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>State Key Laboratory of Advanced Environmental Technology, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>Fujian Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Ozone Pollution Prevention, Institute of Urban Environment,  Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff11">
<label>11</label>
<addr-line>Nanjing-Helsinki Institute in Atmospheric and Earth System Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing,  China, 210023</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>14</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>33</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Jing Cai 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-2026-4106/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4106/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4106/egusphere-2026-4106.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4106/egusphere-2026-4106.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Organic aerosol (OA) is a major component of PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt; with significant health impacts, particularly in the highly populated NCP. However, characterizing OA composition, toxicity, and sources remains challenging. To address this, we conducted an intensive campaign throughout the 2023&amp;ndash;2024 heating season in Weifang, a representative medium-sized NCP city. Despite overall air quality improvements, severe winter PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt; pollution events still occurred, with a maximum concentration reaching 985 &amp;micro;g m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt;. Using a Chemical Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer equipped with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO-CIMS), we obtained molecular composition and identified six clusters, linking them to sources resolved by positive matrix factorization (PMF) applied to the online dataset, including secondary inorganics, biomass burning, vehicle emissions, coal combustion, and dust. To evaluate toxicity, we determined the oxidative potential (OP) in Weifang. While volume-normalized OP (OP&lt;sub&gt;v&lt;/sub&gt;) increased with both the degree of unsaturation and O:C ratios of OA, the compounds most positively correlated with mass-normalized OP (OP&lt;sub&gt;m&lt;/sub&gt;) exhibited an average carbon oxidation state of -0.5 and O:C of 0.5, indicating that moderately oxygenated OA possesses high OP activity. Multiple linear regression revealed that two combustion-derived groups drive OP: highly unsaturated C&lt;sub&gt;10-15&lt;/sub&gt; compounds with ~10 oxygen atoms from solid fuel burning, and C&lt;sub&gt;&amp;gt;15&lt;/sub&gt; compounds with &amp;lt;5 oxygen atoms or nitrogen-containing compounds from traffic emissions, which exhibited OP&lt;sub&gt;m&lt;/sub&gt; up to 23 times higher than the ambient average. Our study highlights the continued need for emission controls, particularly those targeting solid fuel combustion in the NCP region beyond its megacities.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="33"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>National Natural Science Foundation of China</funding-source>
<award-id>42422505</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>National Key Research and Development Program of China</funding-source>
<award-id>2022YFC3700304</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
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