Knowledge Aided Detection and Tracking

Proper use of knowledge of the environment can assist in the detection and tracking of targets within a radar system. Referenced research shows that knowledge-aided (KA) algorithms using terrain data enhances radar performance in the filtering, detection and tracking stages of processing. This paper addresses the development and experimental demonstration of a new post detection filtering algorithm that uses digital terrain elevation data to identify shadowed regions where ground targets are not observable. This knowledge is used to eliminate false alarms from within these regions prior to track processing. A demonstration experiment is described and improvements on the order of 9.4 dB are reported.