A passive acoustic method to locate moving sound sources is applied to maneuvering aircraft. The advantages of the method are that it is suitable for all kinds of aircraft, not only propeller-driven, and is not restricted to low height above the ground. Its applicability could be, for instance, to supplement aircraft noise monitoring systems or to supervise small airports' activities. The method is based on the relation between the relative Doppler effect observed from a set of at least seven microphone receivers, distributed in the airport surroundings, and the aircraft position and speed. The method requires knowledge of the position of the aircraft at the start of takeoff. The ambiguity function is used to calculate the relative Doppler stretch of the spectrum of the sound between pairs of microphones. The results of applying the ambiguity function are the inputs to a system of equations that relates the aircraft position and speed to the relative Doppler frequency stretches. This system of equations is solved using a genetic algorithm. The performance of the method was tested by computer simulation. The results showed that the location errors are of the same order of magnitude as the size of an average aircraft, even if the takeoff position is not accurately known.

Peer Reviewed