Excitation and propagation of electromagnetic pulses along dielectric-air interface

In this paper we discuss EM pulse excitation by a line source stretched along the plane surface of a lossless dielectric half-space. For an infinite source line, analysis performed in time domain results in an explicit formula for the self-similar spatio-temporal 2D Green function. By convolution, for an arbitrary transient current source, the amplitude and waveform of the emitted pulse, as a function of distance and radiation angle, is obtained, both in far- and near field zones. For a finite-length resistively loaded dipole driven by a spark discharge, the current dynamics is studied.