Modified steepest descent method for inverting the impulse response of target and correlation coefficient criterion for estimating the deconvolution error and controlling iteration number of times are presented. The inversion results from the measured transient electromagnetic pulse response of a conducting sphere show that correlation coefficient criterion is a simple and reliable criterion and that modified steepest descent method is an efficient method for inverting the impulse response of target in time-domain and is superior to modified conjugate gradient method.