Outside the tropics, what Sun angle reaches its yearly high at the summer solstice?

Outside the tropics, the Sun’s elevation angle reaches its yearly high at solar noon on the summer solstice. Elevation angle measures how high the Sun appears above the local horizon.

Earth’s axial tilt causes the Sun’s apparent path to rise higher in the summer hemisphere. At the solstice, that hemisphere is tilted maximally toward the Sun, so the Sun reaches its highest noon altitude of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere this happens at the June solstice; in the Southern Hemisphere it happens at the December solstice.

Elevation is different from azimuth. Azimuth describes the Sun’s compass direction along the horizon, while elevation describes its vertical height. The Sun’s hour angle instead tracks its position relative to the local meridian, and phase angle is used in other astronomical or geometric contexts.

The wording “outside the tropics” matters because the Sun can pass directly overhead within the tropics. There, the yearly maximum elevation can reach 90 degrees, and the date of that overhead passage depends on latitude.