Transient Electromagnetic Smoke Ring Due to a Grounded-Wire Source

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 the 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. In the present work, smoke rings of other commonly used grounded-wire sources in the time domain are 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 an induced current in both horizontal and vertical directions. The horizontal induced current includes positive and negative parts. Both parts of the horizontal induced current maximum diffuse downward perpendicular to the surface, but the diffusion velocity of the negative part is faster, approximately 5.6 times that of the positive part. The vertical induced current maximum diffuses at 45° from the grounded surface with a velocity approximately 5 times that of the positive horizontal induced current. The smoke ring of the horizontal induced current closely resembles a basin, while that of the vertical induced current is more similar to two separate cylinders. Finally, the imaging depth based on horizontal and vertical induced currents is obtained by the statistical relationship between the induced current maximums and the diffusion depth, which are equal to 1.4 times and 1.25 times the diffusion depth, respectively.