Scattering effects of electric and magnetic field probes

Many electromagnetic measurements of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) interactions with electronic systems use B-dot and D-dot probes. The effects of the measurement probe on the field distribution being measured is considered. An infrared measurement technique is used to determine the field distributions with and without the presence of electric- or magnetic-field probes. Two-dimensional thermogram images of the scattered field patterns are measured. The scattering effects of various probes in the frequency range from 1 to 10 GHz are presented. This frequency range can be used to scale-model many EMP and high-power microwave (HPM) effects. It is shown that wide variations in the response of a probe can occur due to resonant frequency and mutual-coupling effects. These effects are due, in part, to the different measurement configurations of the probe relative to the direction of propagation and polarization of the incident electromagnetic wave to be measured. These differences can be significant at certain frequencies and separation distances for the various probe measurement configurations