Initiating 3-D air target tracks from 2-D naval radar sensor reports

The topic studied here involves target tracking of aircraft using naval radar, and can be also used in civilian applications such as airport traffic management. The aim is to initiate a 3-D track from lower-dimensional 2-D radar contact data for 3-D track initiation and/or promotion. Because it is meant to be used at long ranges, the main assumption is that the target is performing rectilinear motion at a given altitude. The solution to this problem will facilitate track management, as all tracks will eventually be three-dimensional. The two cascaded algorithms presented here consist in first determining speed and altitude independently of the actual trajectory, then determining the actual trajectory given the best-fit value for the altitude. The algorithms are shown to work perfectly for noiseless data and adequately enough for typical naval radar parameters. The added sensory components will help resolve the association problem in multiple target scenarios by providing altitude information hidden from the sensors and revealed only through this mathematical modeling and its related algorithmic processing. In addition, the fact that one can deduce speed and altitude at the early stages of tracking permits the elimination of many platform identifications at the outset of the Multi-Sensor Data Fusion process.