THE TRANSIENT ELECTROMAGNETIC RESPONSE OF A CONDUCTING SPHERE IN AN IMPERFECTLY CONDUCTING HALF-SPACE*

The presence of a conducting environment about a spherical ore body must be considered when calculating the transient electromagnetic response of the ore body due to a step current flowing in a large circular loop at the earth's surface. Failure to do this can easily lead to errors in excess of 10% in numerical calculations. Moreover, there is only a limited time interval in which the response of the spherical conductor is easily seen. In a poorly conducting ground the resonance response of the sphere is the first to be excited. Later, however, the non-resonance or wave-type response is excited. These waves destructively interfere and finally the response of the sphere decays with time as t^?7/2. For a range of times and depths the best loop for detecting the sphere has about the same radius as the sphere.