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Which feature of the summer mesopause demonstrates this driving?

  • A.It is colder than the winter mesopause
  • B.It is warmer than the winter mesopause, as would be expected from the distribution of solar heating there
  • C.It has the same temperature
  • D.It shows no seasonal variation at all because the radiative timescale at that altitude is extremely long

Answer: A

Despite continuous sunlight, the summer mesopause reaches about 130 kelvin, far colder than the winter mesopause, because the wave-driven circulation forces strong ascent and adiabatic cooling there. It is the coldest place in the Earth's atmosphere and is where noctilucent clouds form. This departure from radiative expectation is the clearest evidence of the wave driving. Most errors here come from carrying a result across from a neighbouring case where it does not hold.

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