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Use the $L^2(S^2)$ data norm. The coefficients of the measurement error are $e_n^m=b_n^m-a_n^m$, so Parseval's identity givesAn unregularized continuation of these measurements to $r=R$ replaces $a_n^m$ by $b_n^m$ in the outgoing spherical harmonic expansion. Whenever this continuation has a finite trace, its error isChoose a measurement error supported on a single normalized spherical harmonic, with $e_N^0=\delta$ and all other coefficients zero. The data error has norm exactly $\delta$, butThis perturbation theory is a finite expansion, so it defines an actual outgoing solution of the Helmholtz equation outside any sphere of positive radius. It is not merely an example of nonconvergent formal coefficients. Taking instead $e_N^0=|d_N{|}^{-1}$ gives data errors tending to zero and trace errors of norm one, which directly proves discontinuity of inversion. General square-summable measurement noise can even violate the spherical far-field range condition, leaving no $L^2$ continuation to the chosen sphere.

For obstacle reconstruction one would continue the field toward the unknown boundary and look for a surface on which $u_i+u_s=0$, the Dirichlet boundary condition. The unbounded spherical far-to-near-field continuation shows why small far-field errors can cause arbitrarily large errors in the field used to estimate that surface. Locally, a differentiable normal displacement $\eta$ of a candidate boundary must obey the linearized condition $\Delta u_s+\eta {\partial }_n(u_i+u_s)=0$. Thus a large continued-field error, or a small normal derivative, defeats an uncontrolled boundary estimate.

There is a necessary qualification to the wording about errors in the scatterer itself. The calculation proves an unbounded field-continuation error. An arbitrary perturbed outgoing field need not correspond to any Dirichlet obstacle, and no admissible class or metric on obstacle shapes is specified. It therefore does not by itself prove an arbitrarily large geometric error in every constrained reconstruction method. Such a claim requires a shape model and an analysis of the boundary-extraction step. The instability displayed here is exactly the mechanism that an unregularized reconstruction must control.

Write $r=|\mathbf{x}|$, $\theta =\mathbf{x}/r$, and choose $R$ so that the sphere $r=R$ strictly encloses the scatterer. Normalize the spherical harmonics to be an orthonormal basis of $L^2(S^2)$, with surface measure on the unit sphere. The outgoing spherical Hankel function is denoted here by $h_n^{(1)}$, corresponding to the printed $H_n^{(1)}$. For fixed $n$, its large-argument behavior isConsequently the coefficient of $Y_n^m$ in the outgoing expansion is asymptotic to $a_n^m{e}^{ikr}/r$: the factors satisfy $i^{n+1}(-i{)}^{n+1}=1$. With the far-field pattern defined by $u_s(r\theta )=e^{ikr}{u}_{\infty }(\theta )/r+O(r^{-2})$, we obtainOne can first project onto each spherical harmonic and then take the large-$r$ limit. This avoids assuming that the fixed-order asymptotic is uniform in $n$. The Sommerfeld radiation condition selects the outgoing spherical Hankel functions rather than their incoming counterparts.

Let $g(\theta )=u_s(R\theta )$. Its coefficients are $g_n^m=d_n{a}_n^m$, where $d_n=k{i}^{n+1}{h}_n^{(1)}(kR)$. Since the field is smooth on a sphere outside the scatterer, $g\in L^2(S^2)$; Parseval's identity givesThe required coefficient condition uses fixed-argument growth of spherical Hankel functions, a different limit from the far-field limit. For fixed $t>0$,For completeness, the series of the ordinary Bessel function gives $J_{-n-1/2}(t)\sim (t/2{)}^{-n-1/2}/\Gamma (1/2-n)$. The identities $y_n(t)=(-1{)}^{n+1}\sqrt{\pi /(2t)}{J}_{-n-1/2}(t)$ and $\Gamma (1/2-n)=(-4{)}^{n}n!\sqrt{\pi }/(2n)!$ give the first formula; the corresponding positive-order series gives the estimate for $j_n$. The successive series corrections at fixed $t$ are $O(1/n)$. Applying Stirling's approximation to the factorial ratio yieldsIn particular there are positive constants giving upper and lower bounds by the last weight for all sufficiently large $n$. The finite trace norm is therefore equivalent to the spherical far-field range conditionwhere the $n=0$ weight is defined to be one. The same conclusion holds at every larger sphere on which the outgoing field is defined.

The printed comparison with $\infty$ must mean a finite sum: a literal non-strict inequality allows a divergent sum. Also, the supplied one-sided big-$O$ bound alone does not imply this necessary condition from a finite trace norm; a lower bound is needed in that direction. The two-sided asymptotic above supplies it. Conversely, its upper bound makes the weighted condition sufficient for an $L^2$ trace at the chosen sphere. This is a condition on exterior-field continuation, not a sufficient condition that the coefficients come from a particular Dirichlet obstacle.