AN ALGORITHM FOR THE ESTIMATION OF SYSTEMATIC-ERRORS IN RADAR MEASUREMENTS

A new algorithm is presented that treats the problem of systematic err ors in radar measurements. These errors cannot be estimated by the usu al first-order Kalman filter used in air traffic control, and this fac t causes serious degradation of the accuracy of aircraft position esti mates, directly affecting the aircraft minimum horizontal separation a nd the maximum airspace capacity. The algorithm is based on the use of distance measuring equipment (DME) measurements and is an extension o f previous DME-based methods dealing with aircraft geometric height es timation. The new algorithm could be considered as part of a radar mea surement fault-detection and diagnosis algorithm. Its performance is e valuated in various cases and the results are very satisfactory. The i mplementation of such an algorithm can reduce considerably the departu re and arrival delays and the aircraft operating costs.