Single Source Error Ellipse Combination

There are a number of military applications in which the geographic location of a signal of interest is of prime importance to the ability of a unit to fulfill its mission. The accuracy of the geographic fix provided to the warfighter can directly affect the success or failure of a mission. One method to improve the accuracy of existing systems is to use the weighted average of a number of intercepts. Each intercept is manifested as an error ellipse comprised of a latitude, longitude, semi-axes, heading and a related Chi squared distributed probability. Individual error ellipses can be viewed as a quadratic surface perpendicular to the x,y plane of a bivariate normal distribution, the z-axis intersection of which corresponds to a Chi squared value. By transforming the individual error ellipses to their related location covariance matrices, Gaussian statistics may be used to produce a single location ellipse that combines information from several two dimensional target location ellipses. By providing a means to fuse data from a given source the warfighter or analyst will be able to more accurately assess a threat and respond.