The observed self-affine fractal behavior of ozone, wind, and temperature in the stratosphere is used to produce an indication of the rate of occurrence of chemistry relative to that of fluid mixing which, unlike the usual method, is independent of an assumed mechanism sequence of elementary chemical steps followed by application of the law of mass action to obtain differential equations describing the temporal and spatial evolution of the reacting gases. Rather, the occurrence of chemistry is deduced from the scaling of the observed variability; it is applied empirically to deduce the presence of chemical processes that are faster than fluid mechanical mixing above an altitude of 19 km during a balloon flight, and in the Antarctic spring, Arctic summer, and Arctic winter during high altitude aircraft flights. The method should apply to any volume of reacting molecules to which the equations of fluid motion apply and for which measurements can be made over a range of scales.