Determining transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite

• US 8,462,044 B1
• Filed: 01/26/2011
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Glowlink Communications Technology, Inc. (Singapore Technologies Engineering Limited)
• Original Assignee: Glowlink Communications Technology, Inc. (Singapore Technologies Engineering Limited)
• Inventors: Ho, Dominic K. C., Chu, Jeffrey C., Downey, Michael L.
• Primary Examiner(s): GALT, CASSI J
• Application Number:
  US13/014,660
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 342/353, 342/356, 342/357.78, 342/453, 342/450
• US Class Current: 342/353
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/06 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/12 takes precedence

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite. In an embodiment, a signal is received at a ground station from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite. The signal is received at the ground station at a plurality of time instances and has a plurality of observed frequencies, one for each time instance. A plurality of lines of position are determining based on the plurality of observed frequencies. The transmit location of the emitter is determined based on at least one intersection among the plurality of lines of position.

Claims

1. A method of determining the transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite, the method comprising:

receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at first and second time instances;

determining a first line of position based on a first difference in frequency for the received signal between the first and second time instances;

receiving the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at the ground station at third and fourth time instances;

determining a second line of position based on a second difference in frequency for the received signal between the third and fourth time instances; and

determining the transmit location of the emitter based on the first line of position and the second line of position.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the geostationary satellite is moving in a first direction during the first and second time instances and wherein the satellite is moving in a second direction, different from the first direction, during the third and fourth time instances.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite has a first observed frequency at the first time instance and a second observed frequency at the second time instance and further wherein the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite has a third observed frequency at the third time instance and a fourth observed frequency at the fourth time instance.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising, further comprising determining the difference in frequency for each combination of time instances and applying Taylor-series linearization or maximum likelihood for determining the transmit location of the emitter.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a signal from a calibration emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the calibration emitter having a known transmit location and the signal from the calibration emitter having a first observed calibration frequency at a first calibration time instance;

determining a first calibration factor from the first observed calibration frequency;

subtracting the first calibration factor from the first observed frequency to form a first calibrated frequency;

receiving the signal from the calibration emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the calibration emitter having a second observed calibration frequency at a second calibration time instance;

determining a second calibration factor from the second observed calibration frequency; and

subtracting the second calibration factor from the second observed frequency to form a second calibrated frequency.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising using the first calibrated frequency and the second calibrated frequency for determining the first line of position.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first time instance and the first calibration time instance are at the same time and wherein the second time instance and the second calibration time instance are at the same time.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the signal from the calibration emitter has a third observed calibration frequency at a third calibration time instance and a fourth calibration frequency at a fourth calibration time instance, and further comprising:

determining a third calibration factor from the third observed calibration frequency;

subtracting the third calibration factor from the third observed frequency to form a third calibrated frequency;

determining a fourth calibration factor from the fourth observed calibration frequency; and

subtracting the fourth calibration factor from the fourth observed frequency to form a fourth calibrated frequency.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising using the third calibrated frequency and the fourth calibrated frequency for determining the second line of position.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the third time instance and the third calibration time instance are at the same time and wherein the fourth time instance and the fourth calibration time instance are at the same time.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite comprises a modulated carrier.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein a first observed frequency is determined by determining the modulation of the modulated carrier, applying a transform to the modulated carrier and estimating the frequency of the modulated carrier.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said estimating frequency of the modulated carrier is performed by computing a power spectrum of the transformed modulated carrier, identifying a frequency bin that contains a peak amplitude and performing interpolation to estimate the frequency of the modulated carrier.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite comprises a continuous wave signal.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein a first observed frequency is determined by computing a power spectrum of the continuous wave signal, identifying a frequency bin that contains a peak amplitude and performing interpolation to estimate the frequency of the continuous wave signal.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining a third line of position from a time difference of arrival or a frequency difference of arrival obtained from two or more satellites and wherein said determining the transmit location of the emitter is based on the first line of position, the second line of position and the third line of position.

17. A method of determining the transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite, the method comprising:

receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at a plurality of time instances and having a plurality of observed frequencies, one for each time instance;

determining a plurality of lines of position based on the plurality of observed frequencies; and

determining the transmit location of the emitter based on at least one intersection among the plurality of lines of position.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the geostationary satellite is moving in different directions during observation of frequencies used for determining the transmit location of the emitter.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein latitude of the emitter is determined using observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a first direction and longitude of the emitter is determined using observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a second direction.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the first direction is toward the ground station and the second direction is away from the ground station.

21. The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a signal from a calibration emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the calibration emitter having a known transmit location and the signal from the calibration emitter being received at a ground station at a plurality of calibration time instances and having a plurality of observed calibration frequencies, one for each calibration time instance;

determining a plurality of calibration factors from the observed calibration frequencies;

for each of the observed frequencies, subtracting a corresponding one of the calibration factors from the observed frequency to form a plurality of calibrated frequencies; and

using the plurality of calibrated frequencies for said determining the transmit location of the emitter.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein for each calibration factor subtracted from an observed frequency, the corresponding calibration time instance occurs at the same time to the time instance of the observed frequency.

23. The method according to claim 17, wherein each line of position is determined based on a difference in frequency of the received signal at two different time instances.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising determining the difference in frequency for each combination of time instances and applying Taylor-series linearization or maximum likelihood to obtain a solution of the emitter location.

25. The method according to claim 17, wherein the determined location of the emitter is updated as new measurements of observed frequencies are obtained.

26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising identifying a converged solution for the transmit location based on residual bias.

27. The method according to claim 25, further comprising identifying a converged solution for the transmit location based on root mean-square error.

28. The method according to claim 25, further comprising dividing measurements of observed frequencies into segments, with each segment containing a plurality of observed frequencies.

29. The method according to claim 17, wherein the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite comprises a modulated carrier.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein each of the plurality of observed frequencies is determined by determining modulation of the modulated carrier, applying a transform to the modulated carrier and estimating frequency of the modulated carrier.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein said estimating frequency of the modulated carrier is performed by computing a power spectrum of the transformed modulated carrier, identifying a frequency bin that contains a peak amplitude and performing interpolation to estimate the frequency of the modulated carrier.

32. The method according to claim 17, wherein the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite comprises a continuous wave signal.

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein each of the plurality of observed frequencies is determined by computing a power spectrum of the continuous wave signal, identifying a frequency bin that contains a peak amplitude and performing interpolation to estimate the frequency of the continuous wave signal.

34. A method of determining the transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite, the method comprising:

receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at a plurality of time instances and having a plurality of observed frequencies, one for each time instance;

determining latitude of the emitter from observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a first direction;

determining longitude of the emitter from observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a second direction; and

determining the transmit location of the emitter based on the determined latitude and longitude.

35. The method according to claim 34, wherein the first direction is toward the ground station and the second direction is away from the ground station.

36. A computer program product for determining the transmit location of an emitter, the computer program stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and adapted to perform operations of:

receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at first and second time instances;

determining a first line of position based on a first difference in frequency for the received signal between the first and second time instances;

receiving the signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at the ground station at third and fourth time instances;

determining a second line of position based on a second difference in frequency for the received signal between the third and fourth time instances; and

determining the transmit location of the emitter based on the first line of position and the second line of position.

37. A computer program product for determining the transmit location of an emitter, the computer program stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and adapted to perform operations of:

receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at a plurality of time instances and having a plurality of observed frequencies, one for each time instance;

determining a plurality of lines of position based on the plurality of observed frequencies; and

determining the transmit location of the emitter based on at least one intersection among the plurality of lines of position.

38. A computer program product for determining the transmit location of an emitter, the computer program stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and adapted to perform operations of:

receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at a plurality of time instances and having a plurality of observed frequencies, one for each time instance;

determining latitude of the emitter from observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a first direction;

determining longitude of the emitter from observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a second direction; and

determining the transmit location of the emitter based on the determined latitude and longitude.

39. A system for determining the transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite, the system comprising:

a ground station for receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at first and second time instances and the signal being received at the ground station at third and fourth time instances;

means for determining a first line of position based on a first difference in frequency for the received signal between the first and second time instances;

means for determining a second line of position based on a second difference in frequency for the received signal between the third and fourth time instances; and

means for determining the transmit location of the emitter based on the first line of position and the second line of position.

40. A system for determining the transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite, the system comprising:

a ground station for receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at the ground station at a plurality of time instances and having a plurality of observed frequencies, one for each time instance;

means for determining a plurality of lines of position based on the plurality of observed frequencies; and

means for determining the transmit location of the emitter based on at least one intersection among the plurality of lines of position.

41. A system for determining the transmit location of an emitter using a single geostationary satellite, the system comprising:

a ground station for receiving a signal from the emitter and relayed by the geostationary satellite, the signal being received at a ground station at a plurality of time instances and having a plurality of observed frequencies, one for each time instance;

means for determining latitude of the emitter from observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a first direction;

means for determining longitude of the emitter from observed frequencies obtained while the geostationary satellite is moving in a second direction; and

means for determining the transmit location of the emitter based on the determined latitude and longitude.