An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The scattering of → electromagnetic waves by → particles of → size comparable to the radiation → wavelength. Mie scattering depends weakly upon the wavelength, hence the → scattered light spectrum is similar to that of the → incident light. Mie scattering explains the → white color of clouds when scattering is due to → water droplets having a size of few microns. Cloud → droplets with a diameter of around 20 microns or so are large enough to scatter all visible wavelengths more or less equally. Because all wavelengths are scattered, clouds appear to be white. When clouds become very deep, less and less of the incoming solar radiation makes it through to the bottom of the cloud, which gives these clouds a darker appearance.

Named after Gustav Adolf Mie (1868-1957), a German physicist, whose theory of 1908 explains the process; → scattering.