A system and method for calculating a time of arrival (TOA) of an electromagnetic signal is presented. A method receives a fast Fourier transform (FFT) signal that is a FFT of an original electromagnetic signal containing symbol data. The FFT signal is either multiplied or divided with a value to remove the symbol data. Removing the symbol data generates a perturbed data values representing perturbed signal with a perturbed covariance. The method calculates a perturbed covariance of the perturbed data values. After the perturbed covariance is calculated, the method at least partially corrects the perturbed covariance to produce a corrected covariance. The TOA of the original electromagnetic signal is calculated based, at least in part, on the perturbed covariance.