AUTOMATED PROPAGATION ADVICE FOR OTHR SHIP DETECTION

The ability of an over-the-horizon radar to detect ships is critically dependent on the choice of operating frequency. The author describes an automated surface mode propagation advice system which has been ins talled into the Jindalee Over-the-Horizon Radar Facility at Alice Spri ngs (23.5S, 133.7E). The advice is chiefly derived from backscatter me asurements performed by the Jindalee Frequency Management System's Dop pler 'miniradar' and includes the optimum operating frequency and a pr edicted performance indicator for each specific operational radar miss ion. Global displays of predicted performance, covering the entire sur veillance region, are also provided to allow the system to nominate ar eas where ship detection would be viable with the operational radar. D etails on the function, input and output of component modules of the s ystem are included, as well as the basic input data requirements. A sa mple of the output and diagnostic displays are presented. A few limita tions to the system performance have been found. These limitations are described along with the future effort that is required to overcome t hem.