Contributors to laser backscatter

[sparkle_pony]

Other than Rayleigh and to a lesser extent Mie scattering what other mechanisms might exist that would contribute to backscatter for a high energy laser propagating through the lower atmosphere?

 

[UltrafastPED]

Thomson scattering from ionized particles ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_scattering

With high power you are entering the realm of non-linear optics; lots of stuff is going on!