A brief perspective on computational electromagnetics

There is a growing interest in many quarters in acquiring the ability to predict all manner of electromagnetic (EM) effects. These effects include radar scattering attributes of objects (airplanes, missles, tanks, ships, etc.); the mutal interference of a multitude of antennas on board a single aircraft or ship; the performance of integrated circuits (IC); the propagation of waves (radio and radar) over long distances with the help of hindrance of complicated tomography and ionospheric/atmospheric ducting; and the propagation of pulses through dispersive media (soil, treetops, or concrete) to detect pollutants or hidden targets, or to assess the health of runways. All of the above require extensive computation and, despite the fact that Maxwell's equations are linear in all these cases, codes do not exist which will do the job in a timely and error-controlled manner. This report briefly discusses how this can be rectified. 16 refs