Situation assessment in airborne ground surveillance

Modern airborne ground surveillance systems are able to survey extended areas with excellent coverage, due to the optimal line of sight realized by the operating altitude. These surveillance systems or networks generate a high amount of data and it is a challenge to support the operator in the related situation assessment. Automatic tracking of the individual targets and the correlation between targets and geographical items is a first step for the interpretation of the ground picture. Data fusion is essential to take advantage of complementary information for classification and identification. Target aggregation like convoy detection and group tracking helps to focus the attention of the operators and to manage the big data problem. Higher level data fusion condensates the information again, e.g. for traffic flow analysis. Finally, the automated processes are required to the management of sensors mounted on stationary, airborne or space based platforms.