Articles | Volume 26, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6133-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Measurement report: Assessing the ammonia characteristics over a high-altitude mountain site in Shanxi province, China: a comparison with the observations in the North China Plain
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- Final revised paper (published on 08 May 2026)
- Supplement to the final revised paper
- Preprint (discussion started on 17 Oct 2025)
- Supplement to the preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-4411', Anonymous Referee #1, 03 Jan 2026
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RC2: 'Reply on RC1', Anonymous Referee #2, 30 Jan 2026
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Jing Xu, 03 Feb 2026
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Jing Xu, 03 Feb 2026
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RC2: 'Reply on RC1', Anonymous Referee #2, 30 Jan 2026
Peer review completion
AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
AR by Jing Xu on behalf of the Authors (03 Feb 2026)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
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ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (10 Mar 2026) by Amos Tai
RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (17 Mar 2026)
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (30 Mar 2026) by Amos Tai
AR by Jing Xu on behalf of the Authors (02 Apr 2026)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
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ED: Publish as is (13 Apr 2026) by Amos Tai
AR by Jing Xu on behalf of the Authors (17 Apr 2026)
Manuscript
Pu et al. reports valuable year-long measurements of NH3 simultaneously captured at 3 distinct site types at different locations in the North China Plain, respectively representing high altitude background in the western North China Plain , regional background of the northern part of the Plain and urban pollution within the Plain area. These data were used to reveal similarities and differences within NH3 measurements at distinct locations as well as uncover the influences of emissions, local circulations and transport. Overall, the manuscript presented valuable insights into the homogeneity of NH3 pollution in the North China Plain, and the impact of geographical circulations. However, the manuscript still needs to be further improved before it can be accepted for publication. Below are some detailed comments:
1. P1 L22-23: Grammar issue:"It further conducted comparative analyses"
2. P1 L30: Basically mountain-plain and mountain-valley circulations are caused by similar phyisical processes, they only differ in spatial scale. Is it accurrate to say that the SDZ station is only influenced by mountain-valley circulations? Although the altitude of SDZ is not that high, it is still located within the Yan mountains, therefore must be also subjected to mountain-plain circulations.
3. P3 L73-82: What scientific findings did previous measurements at high altitude sites present? How did these high altitude measurements compare to those in nearby urban sites? What was still unexplained by these studies and needs to be further studied in this one?
4. P4 L115: Should be "by various land use types" instead of "varied".
5. P8 L210-227: Regional air pollution occurs typically throughout the entire North China Plain under favorable meteorological conditions. Typically, there is a appromimate cycle of 7 days in synoptic pattern variations, which might be mainly responsible for the observed "similarities" between observations at the two background sites.
6. P8 L228-229: What are the possible influences of micriobial soil activities on NH3 at WTM and SDZ?
7. What kind of data were used in the CCM analysis? Daily averages? How are intercorrelations among meteorological factors considered within this methodology (e.g.: intercorrelation between RH,T and P)
8. L274: "NH3 intensity emission regions" should be revised as "intense NH3 emission regions"
9. P11, L285: NCP is a region and cannot act like a potential emission "hotspot"
10. P15, L342: Might this be because cold and shallow wintertime BLH might trap pollutants over the plain region, preventing it from reaching SDZ? While during the other seasons the BLH was high enough for pollutants to mix up to the height of SDZ, under such context higher BLH would only result in more dilution and lower pollution levels.
11. P15 L353: There seems to be two sources influencing NH3 at the WTM site, one that is closer to the site, that influences the WTM earliear during the day and another later peak seems to be similar to that of SDZ, possibly more linked to moutain-plain circulation induced transport from the plain region. How do wind speed and wind directions vary diurnally at WTM and SDZ during distinct seasons?
12. P17 L 398-399 grammar issue.
13. While the case studies help understanding the role of topography and transport, the authors should fully exploit their long-term data and answer some critical questions such as: how does the regional background concentration vary with season, how does urban emissions add to the NH3 burden over the NCP, how much influence do agricultural emissions contribute during distinct seaons? How frequent are morning peaks and how often are they linked to dew emissions?