Application of the Schelkunoff Formulation to the Sommerfeld Problem of a Vertical Electric Dipole Radiating Over an Imperfect Ground

The objective of this presentation is to illustrate the accuracy of the Schelkunoff formulation over the Sommerfeld solution for a vertical electric dipole radiating over an imperfect ground. In an earlier paper, the alternate form of the Sommerfeld Green's function developed by Schelkunoff was presented (Schelkunoff, 1943 and Dyab, 2013). Here we demonstrate the application of this new methodology for two classes of problems. First, the problem of predicting the propagation path loss in a wireless communication environment is illustrated. The second application problem described in this paper deals with the verification of experimental data related to propagation over an Aluminum sheet at THz frequencies. It is seen that the main contribution of the reflected field is due to a specular image point as expected for a metal and the presence of surface waves in the total reflected field is absent, even though the permittivity of the metal is negative at these frequencies. Both theoretical predictions and experimental data demonstrate that there is little contribution to the reflected field due to a surface wave. Also, a clear definition is made to characterize surface waves as there is confusion as to what a surface wave really is.