electric and magnetic fields over finitely conducting ground
can be calculated by using the field expressions for electric
dipoles over finitely conducting ground. The electric field due
to a dipole over finitely conducting ground was first evaluated
by Sommerfeld [7], and the results were given in terms of
integrals. Many researchers have considered different approximations
for these integrals. Recently, Zeddam and Degauque
[8] evaluated these Sommerfeld integrals and compared the
results with these well known approximations. Their results
show that the fields over finitely conducting ground can be well
represented by the results of Norton [9] among others. In this
paper, expressions for the dipole fields over finitely conducting
ground (as published by Norton [9]) were used in calculating
the electric and magnetic fields. Cooray and Lundquist [10]
showed that the calculation of lightning generated EM fields
over finitely conducting ground can be simplified to a large
extent by replacing the attenuation function in the equations
by the attenuation function corresponding to a dipole at
ground level. The results presented by Cooray [11], Ming
and Cooray [12], and Cooray and Ming [13] show that this
approximation is valid for distances as close as 1 km from
the lightning channel. Calculations done recently by Cooray
show that this approximation is valid even for distances as
close as 200 m. For example, the vertical electric field at 200
m calculated over finitely conducting ground of conductivity
0.002 S/m and relative dielectric constant five by replacing the
attenuation function in equations by the attenuation function
corresponding to a dipole at ground level is shown by a dashed
line in Fig. 1(a). The vertical electric field at 200 m calculated
without making this approximation is shown by a solid line in
Fig. 1(a). Note that the maximum error is about 7%