Electromagnetic field of a vertical dipole over an imperfectly conducting half‐space

Abstract

The electromagnetic field generated by a vertical electric dipole on or near the surface of the Earth is studied for continuous‐wave excitation. The analytical foundation established by Sommerfeld and developed by many others is reviewed, and simple explicit new formulas are derived for the three components of the electromagnetic field and represented graphically. Their range of validity is defined. They show that the surface waves constitute the entire far field along the air‐earth boundary.