Global warming makes nitrogen oxide abatement key to ozone pollution mitigation
Global warming has become a critical factor affecting surface ozone (O 3 ) pollution. The effectiveness of emission reductions for O 3 pollution mitigation largely relies on the sensitivity of O 3 production to its precursors. However, how global warming affects the O 3 sensitivity remains unclear, posing a grand challenge in developing effective strategies for O 3 pollution mitigation. Here, by using comprehensive ambient observations to constrain model simulations, we show a strong temperature dependence of O 3 sensitivity over a large temperature range (−5° to 37°C) in Chinese cities. O 3 sensitivity shifts toward the nitrogen oxide–limited regime at higher temperatures. Temperature change alters the reaction regime by primarily modulating the rate coefficient of radical termination, rather than that of radical cycling, and by altering emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds. Overall, future global warming will accelerate the transition of O 3 sensitivity toward the nitrogen oxide–limited regime, amplifying the benefits of nitrogen oxide emission abatement in mitigating O 3 pollution in urban areas worldwide.
Authors
- Jonathan Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9421-1703)
- Hang Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4889-1669)
- Cheng Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9518-3628)
- Yuanhang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4927-9685)
- D. D. Parrish (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6312-2724)
- H Z Wang
- Ruijing Ni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3072-6817)
- Keding Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9425-9520)
- Fengxia Bao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0208-1620)
- Yafang Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4912-9879)
- Xin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5129-4801)
- Wenjie Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9592-7735)
- Hong Liao
Institutions
- Space Science Institute (US)
- Cyprus Institute (CY)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (DE)
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (CN)
- Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN)
- Nanjing University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-07-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aea4124
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China