Summary
Nitrogen dioxide (NO<sub>2</sub>) has decreased by ∼33% across over 1200 monitoring sites in China during 2015-2023, following a series of clean air policies. However, most of these sites are located in or near cities, leading to uncertainties in NO<sub>2</sub> trends beyond urban regions due to limited observations. Here, we used satellite measurements to examine the differences in NO<sub>2</sub> trends between urban and rural China. In urban areas, NO<sub>2</sub> columns decreased by 4.0% per annum (a<sup>-1</sup>) during summer 2011-2023, consistent with bottom-up anthropogenic emission inventory and in situ measurements. In contrast, rural NO<sub>2</sub> columns showed a slower than expected reduction (-2.6 to -0.0% a<sup>-1</sup>) during the same period. Model simulations with updates
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