Except I sit and watch the planes all day.
I love planes.
I take careful note of the “contrails” in the morning, noting how it gradually shifts with upper air currents. For example, a lot of high-alt cruising traffic moves towards the SSE, presumably coming in from Europe going towards the heartland.
Gradually the contrails dissipate. Pretty soon what was separate contrails early in the morning - I’m watching out the window or taking walks as this happens, mind you - and by afternoon there is a complete haze covering. I can see a great distance to the west and notice the same greatly dissipated contrail patterns gradually blowing over from west to east by prevailing winds at altitude.
There’s no sunspots or volcanoes or smog involved at all.
I’ve lived most of my life about 40 miles west of New York City. I’ve landed in NYC area airports hundreds of times, so I know about NYC smog patterns. Smog forms a hemisphere over a city.
For 50 years it has always been noticeably cleaner air 40 miles west of NYC than it is in NYC. Again, prevailing winds blow towards NYC from here.
What’s to the west of here ? Thousands of miles of small towns and small cities, where manufacturing smog, since the regulation era of the 1980s began, increasing until now, smog is noticeably absent from where I am.