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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-2026-6529</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Spatial dynamics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in an urban environment and associated impacts on air quality</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Löher</surname>
<given-names>Finja</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7685-5203</ext-link>
</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="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bamberger</surname>
<given-names>Ines</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>Friedrich</surname>
<given-names>Markus</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>Schneider</surname>
<given-names>Johann</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</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>Bojanowski</surname>
<given-names>Julian</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sungur</surname>
<given-names>Leyla</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8785-1817</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Steinbauer</surname>
<given-names>Manuel</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</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>Thomas</surname>
<given-names>Christoph Karl</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2277-6013</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</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>Nölscher</surname>
<given-names>Anke Christine</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7864-4020</ext-link>
</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="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Atmospheric Chemistry, University of Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Micrometeorology, University of Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Department of Sport Ecology, University of Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>now at: Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, University of York, York, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>now at: Institute for Physics of the Atmosphere, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>now at: Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>now at: Institute of Climate and Energy Systems, ICE-3: Troposphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>now at: Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>02</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>40</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Finja Löher 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-2026-6529/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6529/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6529/egusphere-2026-6529.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6529/egusphere-2026-6529.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Urban air pollution, affecting residents and commuters alike, depends considerably on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) due to their toxicity and potential to form secondary pollutants. The distribution and composition of urban VOCs reflect their emission as well as transport and atmospheric removal and formation processes. Hence, the VOC burden can differ substantially on small spatial scales. Aiming at investigating whether and how a large street canyon with dense traffic influences the air quality of adjacent neighbourhoods, we conducted trailer-based mobile measurements of nitrogen oxides, ozone, and VOCs in the city of Munich, Germany in September 2023. VOCs were measured using a highly resolved proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS). To support different statistical analyses, the study area was divided into grid cells. A distinct separation of the VOC pool into traffic-related, biogenic, and functionalized compounds was achieved by hierarchical cluster analysis, ultimately assisting non-target analyses. The spatial variability was characterized by a combination of hierarchical cluster analysis, k-means analysis, and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). We show for exemplary locations that small-scale variations of some of the less abundant but highly reactive VOCs emitted by traffic (e.g. aromatics, alkenes) induce statistically significant spatial differences in terms of oxidant reactivities and the potential for the formation of aerosols or ozone. Finally, the variability-lifetime relationships of the VOC groups were analysed, revealing that the variability of the traffic-related VOCs was more tightly linked to local source strength compared to the biogenic and functionalized VOCs, and supporting their respective allocation.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz</funding-source>
<award-id>TLK01-L-76330</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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