Well, the solar wind is really a stream of electrons and positive ions. Charges of opposite sign moving in relation to each other are more commonly known as an electric current. Electric current generates heat and a magnetic field.
It seems to me that the "portals" as they call them are just places where the insulation of the earth's upper atmosphere breaks down and begins to conduct a current. It becomes ionized, a plasma. The fact that these "portals" would then sometimes appear and disappear should then be obvious and predictable to anyone who has ever watched one of those novelty plasma globes.
They would also know that it's pretty much impossible to predict, though.
One of the interesting side effects of plasma streams impacting the atmosphere is that they transfer kinetic energy. Early models of the climate (I've not checked the most recent one the IPCC is endorsing) were strictly radiation based (how much energy is absorbed by atmosphere, ground, how much is reflected, and re-radiated off) generally kinetic effects were considered minor or immaterial because the magnetic field deflects most of the solar wind. So when a CME heads our way, the "mass" gets pushed aside by magnetic repulsion and the energy transfer is minimal (some angular velocity imparted to the planet). But if the mass is not moved aside and impacts the atmosphere directly, it transfers its kinetic energy to the atmospheric gas which comes back as a net rise in temperature.
If the effect is significant it could inform observations on solar activity and climate that were previously missing a plausible theory for connecting them. These 'portals' have the nice property that you can map them with a satellite and you can then correlate those maps with atmospheric effects. That should help us with the models we're using.
That makes sense. Because the broadside shove impacts the atmosphere with a relatively smooth voltage gradient if the solar wind is fairly even, then the atmosphere may not break down and conduct, and the resulting e field differential will impart kinetic energy into the molecules of the upper atmosphere. This energy has to go somewhere, so it just turns into random turbulence in the air until all the energy that was supplied is consumed.
But surely lightning strikes must also cause heating? Electric arc discharges on the order of gigajoules and milliseconds [1] works out to a lot of watts. I guess it averages out though because the amount of timespace with no-lightning-strike is much greater than that with lightning-strike.
So these "portals" are the connections being made between the two fields when the magnetic differential between them is great enough? Like lightning strikes? So very cool!
It seems to me that the "portals" as they call them are just places where the insulation of the earth's upper atmosphere breaks down and begins to conduct a current. It becomes ionized, a plasma. The fact that these "portals" would then sometimes appear and disappear should then be obvious and predictable to anyone who has ever watched one of those novelty plasma globes.
They would also know that it's pretty much impossible to predict, though.