Left alone, atmospheric pollutant gases would collect like dirt. But the atmosphere has an efficient cleaner: the hydroxyl radical (•OH).
Amid global climate change worries, it is easy to imagine an atmosphere where pollutant gases are building to irredeemable levels. This nightmare situation would be our reality if not for oxidant molecules, such as the hydroxyl radical, in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere, up to about 10 km high). These oxidants gain electrons in reaction with pollutant gases, such as methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO), thereby reducing pollutant levels in the atmosphere.
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