Aircraft flight parameter estimation using acoustic multipath delays

The signal emitted by an airborne acoustic source arrives at a stationary sensor located above a flat ground via a direct path and a ground-reflected path. The difference in the times of arrival of the direct path and ground-reflected path signal components, referred to as the multipath delay, provides an instantaneous estimate of the elevation angle of the source. A model is developed to predict the variation with time of the multipath delay for a jet aircraft or other broadband acoustic source in level flight with constant velocity over a hard ground. Based on this model, two methods are formulated to estimate the speed and altitude of the aircraft Both methods require the estimation of the multipath delay as a function of time. The methods differ only in the way the multipath delay is estimated; the first method uses the autocorrelation function, and the second uses the cepstrum, of the sensor output over a short time interval. The performances of both methods are evaluated and compared using real acoustic data. The second method provides the most precise aircraft speed and altitude estimates as compared with the first and two other existing methods.