Transient electromagnetic smoke ring due to a grounded-wire source

Abstract

Abstract The concept of a smoke-ring in electromagnetic fields can be used to describe the spatial distribution and diffusion of electromagnetic fields with either frequency or time. This provides an intuitive basis for qualitative interpretation of artificial source electromagnetic measurement results. The existing discussions regarding this field of study have mainly focused on the smoke rings of a magnetic dipole or loop source. The smoke ring of the other commonly used grounded-wire sources in the time domain was investigated. The results show that the smoke ring of grounded-wire sources is more complex than that of magnetic sources. A grounded-wire source can generate induced current in both the horizontal and vertical directions. The horizontal induced current consists of two parts. At the early stage, when the source has just been turned off, there is a low-amplitude and fast-diffuse opposite return current. With time it becomes positive, and reaches a maximum, then decreases. The horizontal induced current maximum diffuses downward perpendicular to the surface, and the vertical induced current maximum diffuses at 45 degrees from the earth’s surface with a faster diffusion velocity, which is roughly 5 times that of the horizontal induced current. The smoke ring of the horizontal induced current more closely resembles the shape of a basin, while that of the vertical induced current is more like two separate jars. Finally, the respective imaging depths estimated based on the horizontal and vertical induced currents are 0.92 and 1.25 times the diffusion depth.