Is there an upper limit to wavelength and particle size in the Mie Scattering solution?

Question

I figure that Mie scattering is best for finding the scattering when the wavelengths are between 1/10th to 10x the particle diameter. However, is there an upper limit to this? If I send 2.8cm microwaves into a 10cm sphere, will it scatter according to Mie Scattering?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 09 '13 at 11:43

To answer your specific question: Mie theory is used to calculate radar cross sections and radar wavelengths are around a few cm. So Mie theory will certainly work in your case.

Whether there is an upper limit I don't know, but I can't see why there should be.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '13 at 19:29

To add to John Rennie's answer: the Mie solution is valid for any wavelength / particle diameter ratio. However, beyond the range indicated in the question, much simpler theories may give a decent accuracy (it also strongly depends on the electric properties of the sphere though), so using the Mie solution may be an overkill.

Is there an upper limit to wavelength and particle size in the Mie Scattering solution?

2 Answers2