Method for reducing geometrical dilution of precision in geolocation of emitters using phase circles

Abstract

The present invention determines the geolocation of an emitter, using at least one observer measuring signal change while moving on at least two observation tracks. The measurement of emitter signal change is begun between a first observer position and a second observer position. The second observer position is predicted at the time the last measurement from which signal change will be derived is made. The method utilizes knowledge of the measurement start and end points to determine a second pair of observer signal-change measurement start and end positions such that the emitter line-of-position (LOP) determined by the second signal change measurement will intersect the LOP associated with the first signal change measurement at possibly multiple points, but at each of these point intercept orthogonally to within the signal change measurement errors. The method determines the intersection points of the LOPs and assigns a likelihood to each intersection point for measuring the probability for each of the multiple intersection points that it is the emitter location, determines a correct emitter position from these likelihood weights, and generates an error associated with the emitter position estimate.