Human activities throw a lot of pollutants into the air, and they find their way into the atmosphere. However, they do not seem to aggregate – increase the amount. Something else is going on – which led researchers to have a look. One might guess the reason was that the pollutants are washed out via rainfall but that doesn’t appear to be the answer.
At https://phys.org/news/2023-04-scientists-earth-atmosphere.html … we learn that hydroxite plays a major role in ridding the atmosphere of pollutants. A professor of chemistry at the University of Califormia was part of a research team that found a strong electric field exists near the surface – between airborne water droplets and the surrounding air mass. It created hydroxite. This is said to clean the atmosphere – with no human help. Hydroxites oxidise hydrocarbons.
Hydroxite is a key player in atmospheric chemistry as it initiates reactions that break down pollutants, and removes the more noxious chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide. Presumbaly it evolved in response to volcanic outpourings – long before humans were a twinkle in the eye of time. Christian George, an atmospheric chemist of the University of Lyon in Fance, is lead author of the research paper. The discovery was noticed as hydroxite production continued unabated during night time. Therefore, it conflicted with the mainstream theory that sunlight was responsible. Stanford University scientists found that hydrogen peroxide spontaneously formed on water droplets – and it was taken up from there.