Efficient method for the near-field electromagnetic scattering by buried objects

The analysis of electromagnetic (EM) scattering by buried objects is complicated by the presence of the air-earth interface. Because Sommerfeld integrals are involved in the problem, its numerical implementation is also rather time consuming. The problem becomes even more complicated when the buried objects are detected by a transmitting antenna. The plane-wave scattering-matrix method provides a convenient means of combining the source, receiver, scatterer, and interface effects in a self-consistent formulation. However, it is only valid for weak dielectric objects by using the Born approximation. We present an efficient method for EM scattering by three-dimensional buried objects excited by linear transmitting antennas which is valid for both dielectric and conducting objects.