Design and implementation of a fully automated OTH radar tracking system

Abstract

Detection and tracking systems for OTH radars typically require manual oversight because of clutter, noise, and propagation conditions. The authors have designed and constructed a tracking system that eliminates this intervention. The system is based on a two-stage approach that detects low-SNR tracks in the raw data without amplitude-based peak detection. The resulting tracker has been tested under a variety of conditions and found to be robust and accurate. A version of the tracking system has been in production use at the authors' R&D OTH facility since 1992.