Tracker Studies

Abstract

The existence of multi-mode propagation can have two deleterious effects on an OTH radar tracker; it can lead to ambiguity in the interpretation of the range of detected targets, and it can lead to difficulties in determining from a single detection sample, any testing to determine mode identity must be performed at or beyond the tracker. Three methods are considered for identifying propagation modes; one based on testing for the occurrences of echoes in regions or combinations of regions of the radar-observable space accessible to only a single propagation mode, another based on the amplitude fluctuations observed on echoes, and a third in which mode separations are tracked and taken into account. Predictive filters are given general treatment. The Kalman filter tracking algorithm is discussed with the modifications required to implement the first and third (above) mode-identification techniques. The use of signal strength fluctuations as a mode-identification criterion is examined and dismissed as being insufficiently predictable to provide a reliable means for identifying propagation modes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1975
Accession Number
ADA013648

Entities

People

  • R. N. Dewitt

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Algorithms
  • Computational Complexity
  • Databases
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Doppler Effect
  • Electron Density
  • Electronic Countermeasures
  • False Alarms
  • Frequency Agility
  • Geometry
  • Kalman Filters
  • Mathematical Filters
  • Over The Horizon Radar
  • Radar
  • Statistical Analysis

Readers

  • Radar Systems Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Wave Propagation and Nonlinear Chaotic Dynamics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Space Objects