Fusion of multipath tracks for a network of over-the-horizon radars

Abstract

/sup O/ver-the-horizon radar (OTHR) provides wide area surveillance coverage beyond the line-of-sight horizon by the propagation of HF signals via the ionosphere. Targets with a radial velocity relative to the radar site are detected by the Doppler component of the received radar signal. A network of OTHRs with overlapping coverage provides for the detection and tracking of targets irrespective of target velocity. When tracks are formed by each radar in the network, multi-radar track fusion is necessary to clarify the surveillance picture. In addition, multipath ionospheric propagation conditions may yield multiple tracks for each target and for each radar. In this paper, a multi-radar multipath track fusion algorithm (MRMPTF) is outlined, extending the single radar multipath track fusion (MPTF) algorithm previously developed. The impact of OTHR track registration errors is discussed, and the equivalence of alternative OTHR track fusion architectures is shown.