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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-2026-6157</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Targeting Houston&amp;rsquo;s ozone: How sector-specific emissions drive spatiotemporal sensitivity</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Couzo</surname>
<given-names>Evan</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>O’Hagerty</surname>
<given-names>Colin</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>Valencia</surname>
<given-names>Alejandro</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9004-9814</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>Guo</surname>
<given-names>Yafang</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>Craig</surname>
<given-names>Kenneth</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>Vizuete</surname>
<given-names>William</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1399-2948</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Grinnell College, Chemistry Department, Grinnell, Iowa 50112, United States</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Environmental Sciences &amp; Engineering Department, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Spheros Environmental, Denver, Colorado 80204, United States</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>22</day>
<month>10</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>22</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Evan Couzo 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-2026-6157/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6157/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6157/egusphere-2026-6157.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6157/egusphere-2026-6157.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The Higher-Order Decoupled Direct Method (HDDM) is applied to a 2019 regulatory photochemical transport modeling episode to evaluate tropospheric ozone (O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;) responses to source-specific nitrogen oxide (NOx) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in Houston, Texas. The Houston airshed contains a unique mix of industrial and urban emissions that challenges air quality models in predicting O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;, adding uncertainty in their use of determining effective regulatory policy. The regulatory air quality model evaluated in this study predicts that high O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; plumes are VOC-limited and NOx-inhibited in the morning, before transitioning to a NOx-limited regime midday and throughout the afternoon. Mean O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; HDDM sensitivities in high O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; plumes were highest for several source groups, including non-electric generating unit (EGU) VOC (2.65 ppb), non-EGU NOx (2.41 ppb), marine NOx (2.25 ppb), on-road NOx (1.48 ppb), and area source VOC (1.38 ppb). In predictions of the maximum daily 8-hour average (MDA8) O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; concentrations, there were strong interactions between industrial and urban emissions in O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; plumes formed to the southwest of Houston. The importance of nonlinear chemistry varies by source, with the model predicting a strong contribution from second-order and cross-sensitivities for non-EGU and marine sources. The substantial influence of both NOx and VOC sources on O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; sensitivity highlights the need for improved emissions inventories, and more detailed sensitivity analysis.</p>
</abstract>
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