Brighter Beam on Rainy Days?

[kumowoon1025]

Hi all,
So I was just playing around with my greenie just now, and I thought the beam looked significantly brighter than usual. And then I noticed it was also raining.
Could humidity have an effect on beam visibility? I suppose it would help with the Rayleigh scattering?

 

[Stix62]

Seems like a logical conclusion to me.
You'd also have light reflecting off the raindrops.

 

[kumowoon1025]

Seems like a logical conclusion to me.
You'd also have light reflecting off the raindrops.

I'm indoors actually
Too cold

 

[Stix62]

I'm indoors actually
Too cold

Oh, I thought you were outside, but now I read it again ...'And then I noticed it was also raining.' ...that makes sense

Ok, i'll stick with this .. 'Seems like a logical conclusion to me.'
It makes sense, I'm just wondering what the level of humidity would have to be to start seeing a difference.

 

[lazeerer]

With out particles in the air you would not see a laser beam. No matter how powerful and visible the laser is. Put it in a Vacuum where there is No Chance of anything in the air and you will see nothing but the dot.

You only see the beam because its reflecting and bouncing off Particles,Dust etc in the air. The more in the air the more visible the beam is. This is why we use fog to bring the beam to life. Humidity is the same concept.:beer:

 

[ElectroMagneticFreak]

What I find amazing is on a clear calm night when I focus my 300mW 532nm into a wide "spotlight" beam is just how many particles there are zipping in and out and of the widened beam. They almost look like fireflies in the green light. I had no idea how much "stuff" was actually in the air even without any precipitation or fog in the atmosphere. I guess that's actually a bad thing.. could be pollution, soot, car exhaust particles, dust, nuclear fallout particles... who knows but it looks really cool!

 

[Keiichi tsuchiya]

Let me tell yaa... I live in south florida and we have everyday around 80% to 90% of humidity....that helps a lot on the beam visibility ... Its like beeing in a room with fog