A height-measuring algorithm applied to TERCOM radar altimeter

Radar altimeter is applied to measure the height of an aircraft above the ground in terrain contour matching system(TERCOM). The total performance of the TERCOM is almost determined by the height-measuring algorithms embedded in the radar altimeter. When facing a complex terrain area with a large degree of fluctuation, the traditional radar altimetry height-measuring algorithm performance will be greatly affected,for the reason that wide-beam pulse radar altimeter illuminates widely. In order to solve the problem, this paper proposes a new algorithm named average-height algorithm,and the detailed derivation is carried out. Simulation and flying test has shown that it has good performance and can be applied to any kind of terrain.