The Mie theory also called Lorenz-Mie theory is a complete mathematical-physical theory of the scattering of electromagnetic radiation by spherical particles, developed by Gustav Mie in 1908. Mie theory is named after German physicist Gustav Mie (1868Rostock - 1957Freiburg im Breisgau) and Danish physicist Ludvig Lorenz (1829-1891) who independendtly developed the theory of electromagnetic plane wave scattering by a dielectric sphere.
In contrast to Rayleigh scattering or Dipole scattering, the Mie theory embraces all possible ratios of diameter to wavelength. It assumes an homogeneous, isotropic and optically linear material irradiated by an infinitely extending plane wave.
The Mie theory is very important in meteorologicaloptics, where diameter-to-wavelength ratios of the order of unity and larger are characteristic of many problems regarding haze and cloud scattering. Scattering of radar energy by raindrops constitutes another significant application of the Mie theory. A further application is optical particle characterization. Mie theory is also important for understanding the appearance of common materials like milk, biological tissue and latex paint.
The modern way to formulate the Mie theory has been outlined by physicist J. A. Stratton (Electromagnetic Theory, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1941). In this theory the incident plane wave as well as the scattering field is expanded into radiating spherical vector wave functions. The internal field is expanded into regular spherical vector wave functions. By enforcing the boundary condition on the spherical surface, the expansion coefficients of the scattered field can be computed. A profound description and a basic FORTRAN program of the Mie theory can be found in the book by Bohren and Huffman. The differences between the various formulations of Mie theory are explained in the book by Barber and Hill, which also includes FORTRAN programes.
Therefore the light scattered down to the earth at a large angle with respect to the direction of the sun's light is predominantly in the blue end of the spectrum.
Scattering in which the scattered photons have either a higher or lower photon energy is called Raman scattering.
Miescattering is not strongly wavelength dependent and produces the almost white glare around the sun when a lot of particulate material is present in the air.
Scattering, also called scatter, is the process by which small particles suspended in a medium of a different index of refraction diffuse a portion of the incident radiation in all directions.
Scattering varies as a function of the ratio of the particle diameter to the wavelength of the radiation.
In scattering experiments, a target of some material is bombarded with a beam of particles (typically electrons, protons, or neutrons) and the number of particles emerging in various directions is measured.
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