Does the sun directly heat the air in our atmosphere?

The answer to this question is FALSE
This is because the sun does not heat the air through the atmosphere directly. The transmission of heat is done through three different methods which are convention, conduction and radiation.

Convention is the transfer of heat by warmed matters. Conduction is the transfer of energy via matter from particle to particle.

The radiation method moves the energy through space. The sun heats the ground which heats the air in our atmosphere directly through the method of conduction.
Hope this helps.