How much brighter is the sky near the sun than opposite it?
Research question: How does the angular distribution of scattered light (forward vs. backward scattering) quantitatively differ between Rayleigh and Mie regimes, and what impact does this have on the brightness of the sky near the sun versus opposite the sun?
The records show that in the Mie regime, backward scattering is inherently weaker than forward scattering and occupies a smaller effective angular range 1. While the provided facts confirm that Rayleigh scattering explains why the sky is blue, they do not contain specific quantitative data comparing the angular distributions of Rayleigh and Mie scattering or explicitly detail the impact on sky brightness opposite the sun 3. Therefore, the evidence only partially addresses the comparison between the two regimes 1.
Sources
"Compared with forward scattering, the backward scattering from a single dielectric sphere of this size parameter is inherently weaker and occupies a smaller effective angular range in the condenser pupil, making the measurement more sensitive to noise and system errors."Transmission matrix measurement of a single Mie scatterer
"In addition, reflection measurements are influenced by the air-glass interface, because the multiple reflections between the sphere and the interface are coherently added to the particle response, which introduces additional modulation in the measured field."Transmission matrix measurement of a single Mie scatterer
"In 1871, Rayleigh published the first theoretical treatment of the elastic scattering of light by particles much smaller than the light's wavelength, a phenomenon now known as Rayleigh scattering , which notably explains why the sky is blue."John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh