Surveillance and tracking of ballistic missile launches
Jack G. Rudd, Richard A. Marsh, James A. Roecker · IBM Journal of Research and Development · 1994
This paper begins with an overview of system requirements and design issues that must be considered in the design of algorithms and software for the surveillance and tracking of ballistic missile launches. Detection and tracking algorithms and approaches are then described for the processing of data from a single satellite and from multiple satellites. We cover track formation, missile detection, track extension, and global arbitration, and indicate how these functions fit together coherently. We include both profile-dependent and profile- free aspects of detection, tracking, and estimation of tactical parameters. In some instances, particularly in the area of track monitoring and in a discussion of how we accommodate intersatellite bias errors in line-of-sight measurements, we describe original work that has not been previously reported in the technical literature.