Global sensitivity analysis of terrain effects in geolocation systems

The design of geolocation systems has traditionally used linearized models or one-at-a-time sensitivity analyses, which ignore most of the design space. Global sensitivity analysis algorithms enable more complete system characterization for more complex, nondifferentiable models, such as a digital elevation model (DEM). This paper develops the necessary framework for applying global sensitivity analysis methods to geolocation systems and demonstrates the algorithm's enhanced fidelity by applying it to an example angle of arrival and DEM geolocation system. Terrain roughness is found to be a significant parameter solely through interaction effects with other parameters, effects that would have been missed by simpler analyses.