Association of tracks from over the horizon radar

Abstract

In Over-The-Horizon Radar (OTHR), multiple ionospheric layers cause several tracks per target to be observed. This effect causes ambiguities in target identification and track coordinate registration. A pattern classification approach is proposed for associating tracks. Neural networks and statistical methods are applied to combine track affinities and associate pairs of tracks. The proposed approach provides a practical and efficient way of dealing with multiple track association when the number of targets is large and optimal. Bayesian hypothesis testing is not practical.