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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-2026-4271</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Seasonal and regional sensitivities of secondary inorganic aerosols to NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; and NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emission reductions over China</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Xu</surname>
<given-names>Jiayu</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Clappier</surname>
<given-names>Alain</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Thunis</surname>
<given-names>Philippe</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>Ye</surname>
<given-names>Xingpei</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7899-5031</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Li</surname>
<given-names>Lu</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Lin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Peking University, School of Physics, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Beijing, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Université de Strasbourg, Laboratoire Image Ville Environnement, Strasbourg, France</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Jiangsu Guoxin Research Institute Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>24</day>
<month>08</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>20</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Jiayu Xu 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-2026-4271/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4271/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4271/egusphere-2026-4271.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4271/egusphere-2026-4271.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Secondary inorganic aerosols, comprising sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium (SNA), are major PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt; pollution contributors in China, but the relative effectiveness of controlling their gaseous precursors (NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;, NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;, and SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) remains insufficiently quantified across seasons and regions. Here we use year-round WRF-Chem sensitivity simulations for 2017 to assess responses of surface SNA, population-weighted exposure, and PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt;-related premature mortality to independent 50 % reductions in anthropogenic NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;, NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;, and SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; emissions over China. We find that NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; and NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; reductions each decrease national mean SNA by 24&amp;ndash;36 % across seasons, whereas SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; reductions produce smaller decreases of 5&amp;ndash;15 %. NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; reduction is most effective in winter, decreasing national mean SNA by 32.7 % (-3.88 &amp;mu;g m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt;), while NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; reduction is more effective in spring and summer (up to -35.6 %). Chemical-regime analysis using a potential impact indicator reveals that NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-sensitive regimes dominate more than 70 % of China in winter, shifting to NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;-sensitive regimes across eastern China in spring and summer, while SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;-sensitive regimes appear mainly over the summertime arid west. Seasonal regime evolution shows a clear east&amp;ndash;west contrast broadly aligned with the Hu Line. Halving either NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; or NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emissions could avert ~200,000 PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt;-related SNA-attributable premature deaths annually, with NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; reductions offering larger national benefits and NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; reductions yielding greater benefits in several megacities. These results support seasonally and regionally differentiated NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; and NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; control strategies for future PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt; mitigation in China.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>National Key Research and Development Program of China</funding-source>
<award-id>2023YFC3707404</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>National Natural Science Foundation of China</funding-source>
<award-id>41922037</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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