Does heat from the Sun arrive at Earth at the same time as light?

Hello.

Yes, heat from the sun arrives on the earth at the same time as light.
Both visible light and heat (infrared) radiation travel at the same
speed: 186,000 miles per second.

Sources:

"As we know, heat is a form of energy. In the form of infrared
radiation, heat from the sun travels through space at the speed of
186,000 miles per second. Upon arriving on earth, much of the radiant
heat is absorbed by different kinds of matter and is converted into
heat that we can feel (sensible heat)."
Source: Sciencebyjones.com HEAT
http://www.sciencebyjones.com/heat_background.htm

"Radiation is a method of heat transfer that does not rely upon any
contact between the heat source and the heated object. For example, we
feel heat from the sun even though we are not touching it. Heat can be
transmitted though empty space by thermal radiation. Thermal radiation
(often called infrared radiation) is a type electromagnetic radiation
(or light). Radiation is a form of energy transport consisting of
electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light. "
Source: CalTech: How Does Heat Travel
http://sirtf.caltech.edu/EPO/Thermal/transfer.html

"Sunlight is a form of radiant heat energy which travels through space
to reach the earth. These electromagnetic heat waves are absorbed when
they come in contact with nontransparent bodies. The result is that
the motion of the molecules in the body is increased as indicated by
an increase in the temperature of the body.
...radiation takes place with the speed of light. This fact is evident
at the time of an eclipse of the sun when the shutting off of the heat
from the sun takes place at the same time as the shutting off of the
light."
Source: HEAT, from avstop.com, cached by Google
http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:xXv9ePq9yh0C:avstop.com/AC/apgeneral/HEAT.html+%22radiant+heat+%22+sun++%22speed+of+light%22+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet


"Solar energy is radiant energy that travels from the Sun to Earth (a
distance of about 150 million kilometers) and reaches Earth in about
eight-and-a-half minutes at a speed of about 300,000 km per second
(186,000 miles per second). Most of the solar radiant energy reaching
Earth is visible light (wavelengths of energy to which the eyes of
animals are sensitive). Some of the energy is longer-wavelength
thermal energy that is felt as heat. Shorter-wavelength ultraviolet
solar energy is what causes sunburn."
ABOUT ENERGY
http://www.explorit.org/science/energy.html

search strategy: sun, heat, travels," "speed of light"

I hope this helps.

remarkable answers and dialog to a somewhat evanescent question. Depth
provides room for much useful continued speculation.

Would you believe "yes and no"?

Yes - IR does arrive simultaneously, however, much of the atmospheric
heating is as a result of solar wind, and this travels very much more
slowly, taking I believe, hours to arrive.  Of itself, the arrival of
these charged partiicles can cause problems with satellite
communication, but the atmospheric heating also increases drag on LEO
satellites.

Xarqi,

Do you have any source for your assertion that "much of the
atmospheric
heating is as a result of solar wind"?

How much? 

From NASA's web site:

"The normal solar wind doesn't have much effect on the Earth (it's
deflected by the Earth's magnetic field), but bursts of plasma and
magnetic field, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), that travel with
the solar wind from active regions on the Sun, can cause "geomagnetic
storms","
http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:85RYCKOZcFsC:helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sun.html+%22infrared+radiation%22+heat+%22solar+wind+affect%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet

Here's one:
http://www.phys.ucalgary.ca/satellites/html/sp_weather.html

I got 1180 Google hits with "satellite atmosphere heating orbital drag solar wind"

Thanks, Xarqi.

This question, though, isn't really about geomagnetic storms or solar
winds' "potential to affect the near Earth environment."

The point here would seem to be that the sun's heat that we feel on
earth is radiant heat (infrared radiation), and that heat travels at
the speed of light. This was the basis of my answer.

Your first comment seemed to imply that "much" of the heat reaching
the earth is the result of solar winds. Is that what you meant? If so,
what do you mean by "much"?

Sorry if I misled.  You are quite right.  Far and away the greatest
energy input is direct radiation, including IR.  Just for the sake of
completeness I thought I ought to mention the effect of charged
particles.