The electric field on the surface of the earth in an area above a buried insulated conductor is determined when the active source is a horizontal dipole also on the surface of the earth at some distance away. This is accomplished by first evaluating the current induced in the wire by the lateral‐wave field incident from the transmitter and then calculating the reradiated field just above the surface. Two orientations are considered. The field at the center of the buried conductor is (1) parallel toE1&rgr;(&rgr;,0,z) and (2) parallel toE1&fgr;(&rgr;,&pgr;/2,z). In an area above the conductor, the incident, scattered and total fields are evaluated for the conditions of a laboratory model. It is concluded that the method is potentially useful for locating buried or submerged regions with significantly different wave numbers from that of the surrounding earth.