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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>
<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-2026-5147</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Seasonal regime shifts in atmospheric aging of vehicular water-soluble organic aerosols: evidence from functionalization transformation indices and molecular conformational modeling</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Tan</surname>
<given-names>Tantan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</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>Li</surname>
<given-names>Yanpeng</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
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<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Sirui</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>Du</surname>
<given-names>Huihui</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>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Liyuan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</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>Huang</surname>
<given-names>Lihui</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</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>Deng</surname>
<given-names>Shunxi</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>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Weiwei</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chen</surname>
<given-names>Jianxun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>School of Water and Environment, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054 Shaanxi,  China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Key Laboratory of Subsurface Hydrology and Ecological Effect in Arid Region of the  Ministry of Education, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054 Shaanxi, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Key Laboratory of Eco-hydrology and Water Security in Arid and Semi-arid Regions  of the Ministry of Water Resources, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054 Shaanxi,  China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Yinchuan Ecological Environment Monitoring Station, Yinchuan, 750001, Ningxia,  China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710064 Shaanxi, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>23</day>
<month>10</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>40</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Tantan Tan 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-2026-5147/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5147/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5147/egusphere-2026-5147.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5147/egusphere-2026-5147.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Vehicular water-soluble organic aerosols (WSOA) critically impact urban air quality and climate, yet their molecular-level responses to seasonal aging remain unclear. This study integrates FT‑ICR MS with a three‑tier framework that includes core molecular screening, functionalization transformation index quantification, and three‑dimensional conformational modeling to decipher seasonal evolution of tunnel WSOA. Summer core molecules are dominated by saturated, low‑nitrogen aliphatics and lipids (88.5 %), whereas winter cores shift to unsaturated, high‑nitrogen aromatics and CRAMs (93.4 %). Functionalization transformation index diagnostics shows summer hydroxylation dominates (HI = 33,471), while winter exhibits net hydroxyl loss (HI = &amp;ndash;2,787) and positive carbonylation (CNI = 989), suggesting a regime shift from &amp;bull;OH‑dominated photochemistry in summer to NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;bull;/O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;‑enhanced chemistry in winter. Conformational modeling revealed opposite diurnal reorganizations, where summer encapsulation enriched hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA) by 48 yet reduced solvent-accessible polar surface area (PSA) by 790 &amp;Aring;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;, whereas winter hydration depleted HBA by 78 yet expanded PSA by 1,638 &amp;Aring;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;. Molecular conjugation, rather than bulk polarity, primarily governs chromophore activity. This framework moves beyond elemental composition to three‑dimensional structural interpretation, providing transferable, experimentally constrained parameters for chemical transport models, refining predictions of brown carbon light absorption properties, and offering a mechanistic basis for season‑specific air pollution mitigation strategies.</p>
</abstract>
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