Abstract. Water uptake abilities of organic aerosol under sub-saturated conditions play critical roles in direct aerosol radiative effects and atmospheric
chemistry; however, field characterizations of the organic aerosol hygroscopicity parameter κOA under sub-saturated conditions remain
limited. In this study, a field campaign was conducted to characterize κOA at a relative humidity of 80 % with hourly time
resolution for the first time in the Pearl River Delta region of China. Observation results show that, during this campaign, secondary organic aerosol
(SOA) dominated total organic aerosol mass (mass fraction > 70 % on average), which provides a unique opportunity to investigate
influences of SOA formation on κOA. Results demonstrate that the commonly used organic aerosol oxidation level parameter O/C
was weakly correlated with κOA and failed to describe the variations in κOA. However, the variations in
κOA were well reproduced by mass fractions of organic aerosol factor resolved based on aerosol mass spectrometer measurements. The
more oxygenated organic aerosol (MOOA) factor, exhibiting the highest average O/C (∼ 1) among all organic aerosol factors, was the most
important factor driving the increase in κOA and was commonly associated with regional air masses. The less oxygenated organic
aerosol (LOOA; average O/C of 0.72) factor revealed strong daytime production, exerting negative effects on κOA.
Surprisingly, the aged biomass burning organic aerosol (aBBOA) factor also formed quickly during daytime and shared a similar diurnal pattern with
LOOA but had much lower O/C (0.39) and had positive effects on κOA. The correlation coefficient between
κOA and mass fractions of aBBOA and MOOA in total organic aerosol mass reached above 0.8. The contrasting effects of LOOA and aBBOA
formation on κOA demonstrate that volatile organic compound (VOC) precursors from diverse sources and different SOA formation
processes may result in SOA with different chemical composition, functional properties and microphysical structure, consequently exerting
distinct influences on κOA and rendering single oxidation level parameters (such as O/C) unable to capture those
differences. Aside from that, distinct effects of aBBOA on κOA were observed during different episodes, suggesting that the
hygroscopicity of SOA associated with similar sources might also differ much under different emission and atmospheric conditions. Overall, these
results highlight that it is imperative to conduct more research on κOA characterization under different meteorological and
source conditions and examine its relationship with VOC precursor profiles and formation pathways to formulate a better characterization and
develop more appropriate parameterization approaches in chemical and climate models.