Propagation of electromagnetic pulses around the earth

The propagation of electromagnetic pulses around the earth is investigated analytically. The pulses are assumed to be produced by a vertical electric or magnetic dipole. The earth is treated as a homogeneous sphere of either finite or infinite conductivity and the atmosphere is assumed to be homogeneous. It is found that very short pulses become longer the further they propagate, in addition to diminishing in amplitude. The duration of a pulse which is initially a delta-function increases as where is the angle between source and receiver. The results are represented as products of several factors, which we call the amplitude factor, the pulse-shape factor, the time-dependent height-gain factors for the source and receiver, and the conductivity factor. Graphs of these factors and of the pulse shape for several cases are given.