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Which cloud type forms at the summer mesopause?

  • A.Nacreous cloud, whose iridescent appearance results from diffraction by uniformly sized ice particles
  • B.Noctilucent cloud
  • C.Polar stratospheric cloud, which forms in the winter stratosphere at temperatures below about 195 kelvin
  • D.Cirrus

Answer: B

Noctilucent or polar mesospheric clouds form near 83 kilometres in the extremely cold summer mesopause and are visible from high latitudes after sunset. Polar stratospheric and nacreous clouds form much lower, around 20 kilometres in the winter stratosphere, and cirrus is a tropospheric cloud. Their existence is direct evidence of the extreme cold that wave driving produces. Working one numerical case through both cases side by side fixes the distinction better than any rule of thumb.

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