The ability to track and locate aerial targets is of great significance to target monitoring and recognition, as well as other applications. The traditional infrared tracking system needs the assistance of active ranging methods, such as laser and radar, or binocular vision and multistation detection methods for positioning. Based on high-resolution infrared tracking systems, which measure the target temperature and angle, and the law that target temperature changes with height, a monostation passive target location method based on infrared quantitative detection is proposed. The theoretical model of target location, which comprehensively considers the factors of temperature retrieval, aerodynamic heating, and atmosphere, is established. The location experiment is conducted with the developed high-resolution infrared tracking system. Compared with the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast data of the actual target, the relative error of the ranging is <5 % . The error sources of this method are simulated and analyzed, and the simulation of the location distance and the error analysis of the long-distance target are conducted. Results show that the proposed method effectively locates the target. The method improves the monostation location ability of the infrared system and has a certain application value.