MULTI-SHIP COHERENT GEOLOCATION SYSTEM

摘要

A system is provided for rapidly ascertaining the position of a pulse train emitter such as a radar using multiple collectors without requiring more than one platform to measure the same pulse. Thus time-of-arrival measurements at a number of collecting platforms are performed, with the positions of the platforms being accurately ascertainable using GPS data, and with time synchronization between the spaced-apart collectors performed by utilizing atomic clocks. In the multi-ship case, geolocation can be performed on ten milliseconds of data as opposed to 30 seconds of data for measurements involving a single platform. The subject system is preferable to conventional time-difference-of-arrival geolocation system because those systems require that each of the collecting platforms measure the same pulse from the emitter, which severely constrains the flight paths of the collectors, limits the amount of usable data, and increases the system's sensitivity requirements.