EO target geolocation determination

Geolocation determination of a ground target using received imagery and navigation data from an air-borne electro-optical infrared (EO-IR) sensor is described in this paper. For precision target hand-off to Global Position System (GPS) guided weapon systems, target geolocation determination has a goal of 10 meters, 50% circular error probable (CEP) accuracy for the EO-IR imaging system. A Kalman filter capable of processing data generated from a multiple look operation is developed to enhance target geolocation CEP performance and, at the same time, to relax hardware requirements. Covariance analysis results indicate that the state-of-the-art GPS/inertial navigation system, precision gimbal angle read-out, and accurate target altitude estimate coupled with the developed multi-state Kalman filtering algorithm are required to meet this 10 meters CEP target geolocation goal.