Considering the multichannel instability, spectral overlap and strong interference of electromagnetic radiation signals in the integrated electric propulsion systems of ships, a new method is proposed which combines multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) with independent component analysis (ICA) for synchronous blind source separation of multichannel electromagnetic radiation in the field. In order to construct virtual channels, noise-aided MEMD is first applied to decompose multichannel data in this approach. Then the comprehensive screening algorithm is used to filter the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) produced by the decomposition procedure. Finally, the new multivariate input signal is analyzed after screening using ICA to obtain the original electromagnetic radiation source signal. This method is able to effectively addresses several limitations of EMD including the mode mixing problem, its inability to handle multichannel data, as well as the indeterminacy problem in ICA. The efficacy of the MEMD-ICA algorithm was evaluated using simulated signals and real world data from a cruise ship, and comparing ensemble empirical mode decomposition-ICA(EEMD-ICA). INDEX TERMS Blind source separation, electromagnetic environment, independent component analysis, integrated electric propulsion system, multivariable empirical mode decomposition.