Microwave diagnostics of small plasma objects

We suggest an approach for using microwave radiation in collisional, weakly ionized plasma diagnostics when plasma dimensions are relatively small compared with the microwave wavelength. We show that in this case the microwave diagnostics can be based on the measurement of the radiation scattered by an oscillating plasma dipole, similar to the Rayleigh scattering of an atom in light. Examples considered show possibilities of obtaining the decaying plasma parameters (time dependence of charge density and information about loss rates, for instance) from the measured scattered signal.