At https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/15/agu16-researchers-dial-in-to-ther… … yes, a thermostat in the atmosphere that works like a thermostat in a car engine. It dramatically cools the air after it has bas been superheated by the solar wind (CME events). Solar flares zooming towards the earth create shock waves, we are told, similar to sonic booms, and heat the upper layers of the atmosphere. As a side effect this forms nitric oxide in the process and this, magically, cools and shrinks the heated zone in the upper atmosphere which expands in the direction of the solar storm.See also http://phys.org/print400941932.html …. and https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2016/12/14/revolutions-in-understanding-… …
… in the upper atmosphere is a sea of particles, the ionosphere
… The ionosphere is both shaped by waves from the atmosphere below and is responsive to changing conditions in space (the solar wind). One of the researchers described how energy outside the ionosphere accumulates until it discharges – like lightning. This explains how energy from space weather crosses over into the ionsophere.
The same story was picked up by the Benny Peiser Global Warming Policy Forum – see www.thegwpf.com/scientists-discover-internal-thermostat-that-cools-the-a… … but this would also imply, on occasion that heat must warm up the earth – or the process is not able to cancel out the heat input in its entirety. A bit like an overheating car engine in a traffic jam (mostly alleviated by expansion tanks).