This paper adds an important new data set to the discussion of ozone production and concentrations in rural and urban China. The observations and the description of diurnal variation are worthy of publication as a data set. However the aspects of those paper that interpret those observations are severely lacking and I cannot recommend publication. Interpretation of surface observations of ozone, VOC and nitrogen oxides have driven a wealth of publications and creative thinking about ozone in Chinese cities and in rural Chinese locations. This paper does little to characterize the state-of-the-art in our communities thinking about ozone production and as such it is almost impossible to understand if the new satellite remote sensing data confirms current understanding or contradicts it.

I note an active literature on the role of heterogeneous uptake of HO2 and thus a third dimension of aerosol control in addition to NOx and VOC control. I also note that it is important to be clear about whether the paper is interested in instantaneous ozone and ozone production or net production leading to high values in the afternoon. A small sampling of references are listed below. I do not attempt a comprehensive list. Other important references will be found in these papers and elsewhere.

T. Chen, B. Chu, J. Ma et al., Ozone Pollution in China: Current Status and Control Strategies, Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.eng.2025.06.044

Dyson, J. E., Whalley, L. K., Slater, E. J., Woodward-Massey, R., Ye, C., Lee, J. D., Squires, F., Hopkins, J. R., Dunmore, R. E., Shaw, M., Hamilton, J. F., Lewis, A. C., Worrall, S. D., Bacak, A., Mehra, A., Bannan, T. J., Coe, H., Percival, C. J., Ouyang, B., Hewitt, C. N., Jones, R. L., Crilley, L. R., Kramer, L. J., Acton, W. J. F., Bloss, W. J., Saksakulkrai, S., Xu, J., Shi, Z., Harrison, R. M., Kotthaus, S., Grimmond, S., Sun, Y., Xu, W., Yue, S., Wei, L., Fu, P., Wang, X., Arnold, S. R., and Heard, D. E.: Impact of HO₂ aerosol uptake on radical levels and O₃ production during summertime in Beijing, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5679–5697, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5679-2023, 2023.

Li, C., Zhu, Q., Jin, X., and Cohen, R.C.: Elucidating Contributions of Anthropogenic Volatile Organic Compounds and Particulate Matter to Ozone Trends over China, Environ. Sci. Technol. 2022, 56, 18, 12906–12916.

Jie Li, Xueshun Chen, Zifa Wang, Huiyun Du, Weiyi Yang, Yele Sun, Bo Hu, Jianjun Li, Wei Wang, Tao Wang, Pingqing Fu, Huili Huang, Radiative and heterogeneous chemical effects of aerosols on ozone and inorganic aerosols over East Asia, Science of the Total Environment 622–623 (2018) 1327–1342 doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.041 

Ye, X., Zhang, L., Wang, X., Lu, N., Hickman, S., Luo, G., and Archibald, A. T.: Deciphering the impacts of meteorology on surface ozone variability in eastern China using explainable machine learning models, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-74, 2026.