Emitter geolocation using single moving receiver

•We explore transponder-aided, passive emitter geolocation using a single moving receiver.•We derived single-step geolocation algorithms for known and unknown signals.•We derive performance bounds for the system when using known signal waveforms.•We provide numerical error analysis of different system layouts.

Emitter geolocation using a single moving receiving-station is explored. We propose algorithms for transponder-aided geolocation of an emitting station where the transmitted waveform is either known or unknown a priori. The emitter position is estimated directly (in a single-step) from the received signal samples. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the performance. The results are compared with single-step algorithms for multiple-receivers geolocation system and with the Cramér–Rao lower bound.