Automatic air target to airlane association

Surveillance of the sea-air-gap to the north of Australia is a key element of Australia´s defence strategy. This surveillance is primarily afforded by a suite of ground-based microwave and over-the-horizon radars (OTHR). The fusion of the data and tracks from these sensors is an area of active research which supports air picture compilation and provides the foundation for performing situation assessment. To ensure the best results from the fusion process, it is critical that the estimates of the target state from each constituent sensor be as accurate as possible. The theoretical aspects of the problem of automatically associating air targets with airlanes are investigated primarily with the aim of providing a means of removing possible biases in OTHR target state estimates caused by ionospheric effects. However, since the association of air targets with airlanes can also be treated as a component of situation assessment, the same techniques developed herein contribute to the automation of the overall situation assessment process.