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Scattering of Light

Rayleigh scattering is the dominant type of light scattering in the atmosphere. It involves scattering of light by particles much smaller than the wavelength of light, such as gas molecules in air. This explains (1) the blue color of the sky, as blue light undergoes more Rayleigh scattering than longer wavelengths, and (2) why sunsets appear red, as the sunlight must pass through more atmosphere at low angles, undergoing increased scattering of the shorter wavelengths. Mie scattering involves scattering by particles close to or larger than the wavelength of light, such as clouds, and scatters all wavelengths equally. Tyndall scattering is light scattering in colloids and suspensions, preferentially scattering shorter wavelengths.

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1K views17 pages

Scattering of Light

Rayleigh scattering is the dominant type of light scattering in the atmosphere. It involves scattering of light by particles much smaller than the wavelength of light, such as gas molecules in air. This explains (1) the blue color of the sky, as blue light undergoes more Rayleigh scattering than longer wavelengths, and (2) why sunsets appear red, as the sunlight must pass through more atmosphere at low angles, undergoing increased scattering of the shorter wavelengths. Mie scattering involves scattering by particles close to or larger than the wavelength of light, such as clouds, and scatters all wavelengths equally. Tyndall scattering is light scattering in colloids and suspensions, preferentially scattering shorter wavelengths.

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Scattering of Light

Presented by
AWADHESH KUMAR BHARTI
M.Sc. ivth sem
[email protected]

contents
Introduction
Types of scattering

- Rayleigh scattering
- Blue colour of sky
- Red sun set and sun rise
- Mie scattering
- Tyndall scattering

Introduction
Light scattering is a form of scattering in which light is the
form of propagating energy which is scattered. Light
scattering can be thought of as the deflection of a ray from a
straight path.

cident light rays


Scattered rays

Reflection of light
Reflection from a
mirror:

Normal
Reflected ray

Incident ray

Angle of
reflection

Angle of
incidence

Mirror

The Law of Reflection


Angle of incidence = Angle of
reflection

The
same !!!

Rayleigh scattering
Rayleigh scattering named after the British physicist LORD
RAYLEIGH is the elastic scattering of light.

* The wave length of wave is less than


particle size.
(more
scattering)
* If the wave length of wave is more than
particle size
2
then we get
2 scattering.
5
6 less

n much smaller scattering


* Rayleigh scattering
2 d 4involves

2 scattering
3
particles than Mie

2
n

Reason
for blue
blue colour
sky
ason for
color of
ofthe
the
s

Blue color of the sky


Sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere and is scattered in all
directions by all the gases and particles in the air.
Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air
in Earth's atmosphere.
Blue is scattered more than other colours because it travels as
shorter, smaller waves.

Why not violet?

The spectrum of light emission from the sun is not constant at all
wavelengths, and additionally is absorbed by the high atmosphere, so
there is less violet in the light.
Our eyes are also less sensitive to violet.
We have three types of colour receptors, or cones, in our retina. They are
called red, blue and green because they respond most strongly to light at
those wavelengths.

Response curves for the three types of cone in the human eye

Red sunset
Why?

RED SUNSET ??
At mid day, only a bit of the short wavelengths of visible light are
scattered since the radiation is passing through a small distance in
the atmosphere.
At sunset, however, the radiation must pass through a much
thicker layer of the atmosphere.
When the sun is at an angle of 4 from horizontal, the atmosphere
appears to be 12 times thicker than at midday hence, much more
blue light, and
some green light are scattered therefore, the sun appears to look
orange/red.

Mie Scattering
The scattering from molecules and very tiny particles
(< 1 /10 wavelength) is predominantly Rayleigh
scattering. For particle sizes larger than a
wavelength, Mie scattering predominates.
Large particles in the atmosphere are able to scatter
all wavelengths of white light equally.
When all wavelengths of white light are scattered
equally, then Mie scattering is occurring.
This is why clouds appear white....
However, if a cloud is optically thick, then little light
will penetrate through the cloud....

Mie Scattering

Mie Scattering
From
overhead
the
Rayleigh scattering is
dominant,
the
Mie
scattered
intensity
being
projected
forward. Since Rayleigh
scattering
strongly
favors
short
wavelengths, we see a
blue sky.

Tyndall scattering
Tyndall scattering (The Tyndall
effect, also known as) is light
scattering by particles in a colloid
or particles in a fine suspension.
Under the Tyndall effect, the
longer wavelength light is more
transmitted while the shorterwavelength
light
is
more
reflected via scattering.
Tyndall scattering, i.e. colloidal
particle scattering, is much more
intense than Rayleigh scattering
due to the bigger particle sizes
involved

Flour suspended in water


appears to be blue because
only scattered light reaches
the viewer and blue light is
scattered by the flour particles
more than red

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