Does Mie Scattering occur in Liquid or is Rayleigh scattering? Rayleigh scattering occurs when the dimensions of the scatter is much smaller than the wavelength of the incident electromagnetic radiation. 

Mie scattering occurs when the dimensions of the scattered is much larger than the wavelength of the incident electromagnetic radiation. An example is when light is scattered by small water droplets in clouds.

So does Rayleigh or Mie scattering occur in liquid or bulk water? 

It seems the answer is Mie scattering. But in Raman spectrometry. The incident light say 532nm is rayleigh backscattered in liquid. This is why the equipment needs to have notch filter, etc. So why does Rayleigh scattering (?) occur in liquid/bulk water when the particles are much larger than the wavelength of light? Or is it Mie Scattering that the raman device is filtering in the incident light backscattered?
So does Rayleigh or Mie scattering occur in liquid or bulk water? So why does Rayleigh scattering (?) occur in liquid/bulk water when the particles are much larger than the wavelength of light?


What is the approximate size of water molecule? It is on the order of 2.7 Angstroms or 0.27 nanometers. When we are talking about visible light, the wavelength is 500 nm/0.27 times larger than the scatterer! In case of pure water and with visible light, Rayleigh scattering is observed along with Raman effect. If you disperse larger "particles" in water such as milk, one sees Mie scattering.