Multihypothesis fusion of multipath over-the-horizon radar tracks
D.J. Percival, Kruger A. B. White · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1998
Multiple tracks for a single target arise in skywave over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) tracking, due to multiple ionospheric propagation paths between the target and the radar sites. A multihypothesis track fusion algorithm was developed and reported in an earlier paper, where all possible path-dependent track-to-target association hypotheses were constructed, and the probability of each hypothesis evaluated [D.J. Percival and K.A.B. White Proc SPIE 3163, pp. 363-374, 1997] . The implementation of recursive hypothesis evaluation and fused track state estimation is the subject of this paper. Sources of multipath track dependence are identified, and their treatment discussed. The time evolution of the track-to-target hypothesis probabilities and target state estimates is illustrated for example multitarget OTHR tracking scenarios using a simple stochastic ionospheric model which admits multipath propagation. Keywords: multipath track fusion, multihypothesis tracking, over-the-horizon radar