Electromagnetic field generated in the air by a non-stationary gamma source located on an ideally conducting plane

A model problem of exciting are electromagnetic field by a gamma-radiation pulse source placed on a ideal-conducting flat surface is considered. As medium a normal density air at zero altitude is taken. The physical mechanism, by which a gamma-radiation pulse is transformed into an electromagnetic field pulse, is associated with the excitatation of currents of Compton electrons in the air irradiated by the gamma-quanta from the source. In the model problem analysed, the gamma-radiation source is supposed to be a point and isotropic one; only the electron conductivity of the air is taken into account, whereas the conductivity of the lower half-so/pace is assumed to be infinite. The problem is reduced to the integration of the Maxwell equations involving Compton electron currents. The results of numerical calculations are discussed. The Maxwell equations have been integrated numerically by the runover method, which is convenient for calculations, relatively sensitive to calculational errors and which enables one to take into account correctly the source delay