Application of considered covariance analysis to the geolocation of emitters from high altitudes

The geolocation of signals from high altitudes is increasingly vital to combat terrorism and support war fighting globally. In a recent paper (Lerner in CEAS Space J, 2024), the author described an approach to improve geolocation performance by focusing on understanding the impact of biases, particularly navigation errors, on sensor platforms. That analysis model used a hypothetical scenario with drones collecting time and frequency data from an emitter at an altitude of 10–15 km for several minutes, with a strong, time-varying observation geometry. This note applies that model to a case of more practical interest: shorter observations (a minute or less) from geosynchronous altitudes and a fixed observation geometry over a very large coverage area. The considered covariance approach, with the use of the full 6 × 6 navigation error in the covariance matrix, is shown to be a valuable tool in the system engineering specification of the collection system, as well as in addressing biases and improving system geolocation performance.