Sunlight cleans the earth's atmosphere

The work of German scientists, published in the American journal Nature, shows that it is the source of sunlight that cleanses the Earth's polluted atmosphere.

(Photo: deanmckenzie.org)

According to this study, ultraviolet light in sunlight stimulates the atmosphere "detergents" very strongly. As a result, the low-level atmosphere near the Earth is capable of self-cleaning to remove polluted gases such as nitrous oxide, methane, carbon monoxide.

German scientists have identified these atmospheric cleaners as hydrogen-based chemicals created when ultraviolet light in sunlight separates ozone molecules into oxygen atoms. These oxygen atoms react with water and produce highly reactive hydrogen cleaners that react with gases that pollute the atmosphere.

The data collected over five years show that the amount of hydrogen-based detergents is almost unchanged every year and depends only on the amount of ultraviolet rays from the Sun.

German scientists claim that at present, the atmosphere's self-cleaning mechanism works well, but the amount of hydrogen-based detergents can change if the Earth-protecting ozone layer is thinner.