Passive localization of moving emitters using out-of-plane multipath

The purpose of this work is to establish how a moving emitter, such as a jammer, can be localized by a passive receiver through the use of out-of-plane multipath signals reflected by the terrain. This is a novel localization technique that assumes no a priori knowledge of the localization of the multipath sources. The emitter parameters of range, heading, velocity, and altitude are estimated by exploiting the correlation between the direct-path signal and the delayed and Doppler modulated signals. Two basis assumptions about the scattering properties of the terrain lead to different maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs). The Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLB) are used to study estimator performance versus emitter velocity for each case. The proposed estimators are successfully demonstrated using field data collected at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) during the DARPA/Navy Mountaintop program.