Identification of a transient electric dipole over a conducting half-space by measuring fields at two ground points is considered. A simulated annealing algorithm (a global optimization method which mimics the slow cooling behavior of an atomic system with many degrees of freedom) is used to reconstruct the location, the orientation, and the transient moment of the dipole in multiple steps. Numerical examples are studied for a dipole (tested at three different positions) over three typical conducting half-spaces, namely, seawater, dry earth, and fresh water. The identification results based on a perfectly conducting half-space model search and a finitely conducting half-space model search are compared. ¿ 2000 American Geophysical Union