DocumentCode :
1834894
Title :
Multipath track association for over-the-horizon radar using a bootstrapped statistical ionospheric model
Author :
Anderson, Richard ; Krolik, Jeffrey
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Duke Univ., Durham, NC, USA
Volume :
1
fYear :
1999
fDate :
24-27 Oct. 1999
Firstpage :
8
Abstract :
Over-the-horizon (OTH) radar uses the refractive properties of high-frequency radiowave propagation through the ionosphere for wide-area surveillance at long ranges. Ionospheric propagation often gives rise to multiple raymodes between the OTH radar and a target which results in multiple slant tracks from a single target. Multipath and multiple target ambiguities are typically resolved by assuming that the down-range ionosphere is known precisely and then using ray tracing to determine the coordinate registration (CR) transformations from slant coordinates to target locations in ground coordinates. To achieve greater robustness to the uncertainty in down-range ionospheric conditions, this paper presents a maximum a posteriori (MAP) mode linking method for track association that employs statistical modeling of the down-range plasma frequency profile and corresponding multipath slant track measurements. To determine the statistical model parameters from quasi-vertical incidence (QVI) ionogram and wide-sweep backscatter ionogram (WSBI) measurements, the plasma frequency profile is approximated as a homogeneous random process over the region near the mid-point between the radar and the dwell illumination region. Using samples of a 3-D ionospheric model fitted to the and QVIs and WSBIs, statistical propagation model parameters are obtained by smoothed bootstrap resampling combined with Monte Carlo evaluation of a ray tracing propagation model. Simulation results indicate that the MAP mode linking method can achieve nearly a 3:1 improvement in ground coordinate accuracy over conventional mode linking methods with much higher probabilities of correct raymode identification and slant-track-to-target assignment. Real data results from roughly 90 minutes of OTH radar slant track data demonstrate that the MAP mode linking method can provide as much as a 4:1 improvement in ground coordinate accuracy over conventional methods.
Keywords :
HF radio propagation; Monte Carlo methods; backscatter; ionospheric electromagnetic wave propagation; multipath channels; radar tracking; random processes; ray tracing; signal sampling; target tracking; 3D ionospheric model; MAP mode linking method; Monte Carlo evaluation; OTH radar; bootstrapped statistical ionospheric model; coordinate registration transformations; correct raymode identification; down-range ionospheric conditions; down-range plasma frequency profile; dwell illumination region; ground coordinates; high-frequency radiowave propagation; homogeneous random process; ionosphere; ionospheric propagation; maximum a posteriori mode; multipath slant track measurements; multipath track association; multiple raymodes; over-the-horizon radar; probabilities; quasi-vertical incidence ionogram; ray tracing; ray tracing propagation model; real data results; refractive properties; simulation results; slant coordinates; slant-track-to-target assignment; smoothed bootstrap resampling; statistical modeling; statistical propagation model; target ambiguities; target locations; wide-area surveillance; wide-sweep backscatter ionogram; Chromium; Frequency measurement; Ionosphere; Joining processes; Plasma measurements; Radar tracking; Radiowave propagation; Ray tracing; Surveillance; Target tracking;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Signals, Systems, and Computers, 1999. Conference Record of the Thirty-Third Asilomar Conference on
Conference_Location :
Pacific Grove, CA, USA
ISSN :
1058-6393
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5700-0
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/ACSSC.1999.832287
Filename :
832287
Link To Document :
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