Acoustic detection, tracking and classification of Low Flying Aircraft

Low Flying Aircraft (LFA) may be used to smuggle illicit drugs or illegal immigrants across borders. Sound radiated by LFA was used for their detection, tracking and classification by the developed Acousto Seismic Air Detection (ASAD) system. ASAD consists of several nodes, where each node has five microphone clusters and three geophones. Single ASAD node can detect aircraft sound, determine their bearing, and classify the target. Two or mode nodes provide target localization. Extended tests of various small aircraft flying according to planned test patterns were conducted in difficult mountainous areas. The comparison of acoustic detection and tracking with ground truth from the GPS carried by the targets allowed the estimation of acoustic detection, bearing and localization distances and their accuracy.