[zackees]

So this effect is caused by more solar wind slamming into the atmosphere at 100’s of km/hr and is so powerful that it’s CAUSING THE ATMOSPHERE TO HEAT UP AND EXPAND?

Does the global warming models take this into effect? This seems like an unfathomable amount of energy.

[mturmon]

Solar irradiance variations amount to a bit less than 0.1% over the solar cycle. It used to be thought solar-cycle variations (the 11-year period) could be a significant contributor to climate change.

This turned out not to be the case...that was pretty much known by the early 2000s.

Other irradiance variations, due to orbital variations called Milankovich cycles, happening in the 10,000's of year range, do appear to influence climate. Of course, the extremes we're seeing now are not on the 10,000-year time scale.

[jhgb]

It's causing the uppermost layers of atmosphere to expand. That's less than an unfathomable amount of energy because the uppermost layers of atmosphere are extremely rarefied, to the extent they don't even behave like gases.