It IS talking about the atmospheric absorption of the sun's radiation and that's the relevant physical property under discussion. If you're talking about something else, then this would sure be the time for you to make that explicitly clear!
--Boot Hill
We're talking about how well the atmosphere can 'block' light, no matter how it does it, which is what is relevant for the laser discussion. Therefore, ONLY radiative light matters here. Like I said, you keep horribly confusing convection and radiation. Yes, a lot of energy reaches the surface but most of it happens via convection. This is not intuitively surprising at all, for the reasons and examples I already gave. Space suits, solar panels in orbit, telescopes, on and on. What's funny to me is how hard you're trying to argue something that has been CLEARLY disproven. If we can't believe Cambridge then let's all just be nihilists and call it a day!