Hi et; Since you 'challanged' me on this board, I feel that I owe you an answer.

You said -- It takes huge numbers of energetic particles, at the edge of the atmosphere where it's relatively easy to liberate atmosphere, to have a strongly observable effect at all.

J -- Agreed

et -- And EVEN then, we're talking about a trivial number of atoms when you consider the atmosphere as a whole.

J -- I would like to know what that "trivial number" is, also I would like to know if that "trivial number" is increasing or decreasing over time, or alternately if it would be possible to 'compare' that number to an amount that occurred before the 'nuclear age'.

et -- The sad fact is the atmosphere is constantly loosing atoms just due to the fact that the speed distribution of a gas gives some constituents more than escape velocity and they do just that unless a collision occurs.

J -- Was that not what my postulation was BEFORE you read the 'proof' from NASA?

et -- Down here near the surface, a collision always occurs. Up near the edge of space, not necessarily....

J -- Agreed. But according to the known LAWS of physics, if we increase the kinetic energy content of the atmosphere "down here near the surface" eventually the increase will be reflected in the upper atmosphere. Convection, conduction, and radiation have the ability to transfer energy from one place to another. Please don't ask me to 'prove' that radiation can travel through space. There have been enough numbers posted here to 'prove' that such is the case.
I would be very pleased if you could answer some questions about the 'radiation' that comes from the radioactive elements that are in the atmosphere: Keeping in mind the first law of thermodynamics, what happens to the energy of the alpha, beta, and gamma 'particles' that are released individually into the atmosphere? In other words 'how' and 'where' do the 'charged' particles find their 'opposite' charges so that they will become neutral? Is there 'energy' involved in that 'quest for neutrality'? If so, then how is that energy dissipated by the surrounding molecules? What happens to the gamma 'ray/particles'? How is the energy from them dissipated by the atmosphere or do they 'fly into space'?
I know that the quantities associated with these interactions are 'trivial' in your opinion, but I do not know the answers, and I figure that asking questions is part of a 'scientific' process.

et -- I'd worry about the sun becoming a red giant before worrying about running out of atmosphere....

J -- I did not mean to 'scare' anybody by saying that the "sky is falling". I was under the assumption that the people here would distinguish that as a joke. ;-)

Cheers
Johannes