OVER-THE-HORIZON RADAR TARGET REGISTRATION IMPROVEMENT BY TERRAIN FEATURE LOCALIZATION

Citation
Jr. Barnum et Ee. Simpson, OVER-THE-HORIZON RADAR TARGET REGISTRATION IMPROVEMENT BY TERRAIN FEATURE LOCALIZATION, Radio science, 33(4), 1998, pp. 1077-1093
Citations number
15
Categorie Soggetti
Remote Sensing","Geochemitry & Geophysics","Instument & Instrumentation","Metereology & Atmospheric Sciences",Telecommunications
Journal title
ISSN journal
00486604
Volume
33
Issue
4
Year of publication
1998
Pages
1077 - 1093
Database
ISI
SICI code
0048-6604(1998)33:4<1077:ORTRIB>2.0.ZU;2-9
Abstract
This paper addresses the problem of over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) targ et position registration in the presence of ill-defined ionospheric st ructures. At present, OTHR is subject to frequent position uncertainti es due to ionospheric abnormalities, such as tilts and ambiguous multi path propagation modes, that are difficult to model adequately during radar operation. The detection and registration of discrete terrain fe atures in parallel with routine radar operations were studied with the goal of significantly reducing radar target position errors under mos t circumstances. The Wide Aperture Research Facility (WARF) experiment al OTH radar testbed was modified to enable the automatic detection, p rocessing, display, and registration of terrain features and HF repeat er (beacon) echoes in parallel with aircraft detection and tracking op erations. Many distinct terrain feature locations were studied in sign ificant detail, including cities, mountain peaks, and an island, and t he automatically determined position correction offsets were statistic ally compared with collocated beacons that served as ground truth. It was found that 100% of the offsets had expected errors of less than 5. 7 nautical miles (1 nautical mile equals 1.852 km); and 93% of the off sets (with better ionospheric propagation) had expected errors of less than 3.2 nautical miles. We conclude from the research that terrain f eatures can be used to provide coordinate registration benchmarks over an OTHR coverage area in the same way that beacons can be used.