Track Fusion in Over-the-horizon Radar Networks

The surveillance picture provided by an Over-The-Horizon Radar (OTHR) is complicated by multipath propagation. Multiple propagation paths can give rise to several distinct tracks for each target. It has been shown that a Multipath Track Fusion (MPTF) algorithm can successfully use both track and ionospheric information to provide a single track per target for a single radar. This paper presents an extension of the single sensor multipath track fusion algorithm to the multiple radar case (MR-MPTF). We show that, for targets detected in the regions of overlapping coverage, multiple radar multipath track fusion can enhance the accuracy of the target state estimates, ameliorate problems of track continuity and improve the quality of information by providing one track per target.