Investigations on Field Distribution along the Earth’s Surface of a Submerged Line Current Source Working at Extremely Low Frequency Band

Abstract

A numerical analysis on field distribution along the Earth’s surface of a line current source submerged in the ground is conducted in this paper to investigate the potential of the extremely low frequency (ELF) technology in the envisioned long-distance communication techniques. The problem is modeled as a submerged horizontal electric dipole (HED) in a two-layered homogeneous half space and solved by the combined numerical methods of the Romberg-Euler method and Gauss-Laguerre method. The model is validated by experimental results with only a maximum 10% error at 9 Hz around 490 m. Meanwhile, the study shows that the ELF signals emitted by a submerged line current source can transmit at least 1 km with a current sensor sensitivity of 0.1 pT. These results indicate the possibility of applying of ELF technology to long-distance communication or the long-distance transmedia detection.