Geolocation and Tracking by TDOA Measurements Based on Space–Air–Ground Integrated Network

Abstract

Due to the development of manufacturing and launch technologies for satellites, there are now more and more satellite networks. Hence, cooperative reconnaissance is possible to implement among satellite networks, aerial vehicles and ground stations. In this paper, we study the method of geolocation and tracking by time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements based on space–air–ground integrated (SAGI) network. We first analyze the Cramer Rao lower bound (CRLB) for the source localization accuracy in different coordinate systems. Then, we compare the effects of different system errors, such as clock synchronization error, position bias of the observers, elevation bias of the target and non-horizontal velocity of the target. Further, we also develop a maximum likelihood (ML) estimator for target position and velocity. Finally, the theoretical performance of the proposed estimator is validated via computer simulations.