Disclosed herein is a fast method that locates nearby sources based solely on the time-of-flight of a signal across an array of sensors. The time delay for signal passage between all pairs of sensors is determined using cross-correlation estimates and a vector of time delays, .tau., is constructed from the results. In the noise free case, each point in the plane is associated with a unique value of the .tau. vector. The plane is searched for a source location by minimizing the difference between the value of .tau. associated with the candidate location on the plane and the value estimated from cross-correlations. The search takes place over the three dimensional space that includes two coordinates in the plane and the propagation speed. The starting point for the search is constructed from an analytic fit of circular wave fronts to groups of sensors within the array.