The third harmonic current produced by salient pole synchronous generator has always been associated with high neutral current causing problem to neutral earthing resistor, telecommunication system, and earthfault protection. In this paper, the third harmonic model for salient pole synchronous generator in symmetrical component domain is proposed that comprise of generator parameter and generated voltage. The new computational technique in determining the third harmonic zero-sequence synchronous impedance is introduced. In completing the model, the method to characterize generated third harmonic zero-sequence voltage under balanced combine resistive and inductive load is described. In order to study the third harmonic current flowing in the network, the propagation model is also established. The third harmonic synchronous generator parameters are measured and comparatively validated with laboratory experiment results. In addition to that, the third harmonic generated voltage is characterized and validated experimentally. © 1986-2012 IEEE.