A Critical Review of the Error Polygon Method

January 1, 1990

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The Error Polygon Method (EPM) of Heezen and Tester (1967) is used most frequently to quantify telemetry error. Complete scientific reporting for this method should include the confidence arcs with associated confidence levels, a measure of distance from the receiver to the estimated location, and a measure of the angle of intersection. The EPM assumption of a normal distribution of bearing errors was rejected with a large data base (n = 940) collected on 13 transmitter locations that resulted in 388 estimated locations. Empirical data of actual error demonstrated the EPM's ability to delineate 90% error polygons that contained the actual location >90% of the time, although both the area and longest diagonal of the error polygons were 6.3 and 7.4 times, respectively, larger than actual error. The EPM did not give an accurate measure of location error.

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