There Goes The Atmosphere, Naturally

For the first time ever, we have figured out the amount of hydrogen naturally escaping the Earths atmosphere each year. Using the data collected by the European Space Agency's Cluster mission and applying it to a new analytical method, scientists have figured out that the amount is in the thousands of tons.
Hydrogen, oxygen,and helium ions can escape from the Earths outer most atmosphere by way of the poles. The refugee ions are lost in solar wind or the magnetic tail (plasma sheet) of the Earth. There they go through an acceleration process and in a boomerang-like effect, return to Earth recharged with higher energy.