An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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فرهنگ ریشه شناختی اخترشناسی-اخترفیزیک

M. Heydari-Malayeri    -    Paris Observatory

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Number of Results: 1 Search : Rayleigh scattering
Rayleigh scattering
  پراکنش ِ ریلی   
parâkaneš-e Rayleigh

Fr.: diffusion Rayleigh   

The scattering of light by → particles of size small compared with the → wavelength of light. The intensity of the light scattered by unit volume of the medium at an angle θ to the direction of propagation of the incident light is: Iθ = 8 π4α2 N I0 (1 + cos2θ)/(R2λ4), where α is the → molecular polarizability, N is the number of scattering molecules, I0 is intensity of the incident light, λ is the wavelength, and R is the distance from the scatterer. The fourth power dependence on wavelength means that blue light is much more strongly scattered than red light from a medium containing very fine particles. The air molecules, mostly → nitrogen (78%) and → oxygen (21%) are some 1,000 times larger than → visible light wavelengths. This accounts for the bluish appearance of smoke and of clear sky when the observation is not along the direction of illumination. The setting Sun, seen through a considerable thickness of atmosphere appears reddish because long wave radiation predominates in the transmitted light.
Historically, John Tyndall first discovered this phenomenon in 1859 (→ Tyndall effect), but Lord Rayleigh studied it in more detail in 1871.

rayleigh; → scattering.