Performance improvement of track initiation algorithms with the incorporation of doppler velocity measurement

Abstract

In this study, to obtain the analytical expressions of false track initiation probability, elevation and Doppler velocity measurements extracted by a phased array radar are incorporated for the first time into the commonly used track initiation algorithms. With this study, the measurement set is expanded from a merely range and azimuth to include elevation and Doppler velocity. The analytical expressions of false track initiation probability depend on the parameters of the signal processing unit of the phased array radar, such as false alarm probability, true detection probability, signal-to-noise ratio and detector threshold. Furthermore, such expressions remove the necessity of very time-consuming simulations. The results indicate that using position and Doppler velocity measurements provide a reduction of false track initiation probability by a factor of 9 to 34 depending on the value of velocity and acceleration thresholds while supplying the design criterion of the true track initiation probability, ≥ 0.7.