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Adaptive doppler filtering applied to modern air traffic control radars

April 26, 2004
  |
Conference Paper
Author:
Karen J. Anderson
…
Published in:
Proc. of the IEEE 2004 Radar Conf., 26-29 April 2004, pp. 242-248.
Topic:
air traffic control
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

This paper presents an analysis of the Doppler processing technology currently in use in the nation's terminal airport surveillance radars, and examines possibilities for performance improvement, particularly in the presence of moving clutter. The research focuses on five- and eight-pulse waveform methodologies and their respective detection capabilities given clearly defined rain clutter scenarios. Performance with fixed coefficient filters similar to those used in the existing radars is calculated, followed by performance using an adaptive Doppler filtering technique. Performance is quantified in terms of signal-to-interference ratio at the output of the Doppler filters and resultant probability of detection given a specified probability of false alarm. The results will show that a substantial improvement in detection in the vicinity of rain clutter is realized for both the five- and eight-pulse waveforms when using the adaptive coefficient Doppler filters as compared to the performance observed with the fixed coefficient filters. For constant filter weights, the eight-pulse Doppler filters give significantly better performance in most diverse rain clutter than the five-pulse Doppler filters.
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Summary

This paper presents an analysis of the Doppler processing technology currently in use in the nation's terminal airport surveillance radars, and examines possibilities for performance improvement, particularly in the presence of moving clutter. The research focuses on five- and eight-pulse waveform methodologies and their respective detection capabilities given clearly defined...

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Adaptive doppler filtering applied to modern air traffic control radars

Automated tracking for aircraft surveillance radar systems

January 1, 1979
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Conference Paper
Author:
Robert M. O'Donnell
…
Published in:
IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst., Vol. AES-15, No. 4, July 1979, pp. 508-517.
Topic:
detection systems
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

An improved moving target detector (MTD) (a digital signal processor) has been designed, constructed, and tested which successfully rejects all forms of radar clutter while providing reliable detection of all aircraft within the coverage of the radar. The MTD is being tested on both terminal and enroute surveillance radars for the FAA. This processor has been integrated with automatic tracking algorithms to give complete rejection of ground clutter, heavy precipitation, and angels (birds).
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Summary

An improved moving target detector (MTD) (a digital signal processor) has been designed, constructed, and tested which successfully rejects all forms of radar clutter while providing reliable detection of all aircraft within the coverage of the radar. The MTD is being tested on both terminal and enroute surveillance radars for...

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Automated tracking for aircraft surveillance radar systems

Automating radars for air traffic control

February 2, 1978
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Conference Paper
Author:
Charles E. Muehe
…
Published in:
Electronic Show and Convention, Electro, Boston, MA, 23-25 March 1978.
Topic:
air traffic control
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Developments in digital signal processing over the past few years have improved the detection and false alarm properties of air surveillance radars to such an extent that automatic radar tracking of all aircraft within the radar's coverage volume has become a reality. This paper derives the radar requirements to support tracking in a fully automated air traffic control system.
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Summary

Developments in digital signal processing over the past few years have improved the detection and false alarm properties of air surveillance radars to such an extent that automatic radar tracking of all aircraft within the radar's coverage volume has become a reality. This paper derives the radar requirements to support...

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Automating radars for air traffic control

Advanced signal processing for airport surveillance radars

June 11, 1977
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Conference Paper
Author:
Lincoln Cartledge
…
Published in:
IEEE Electronics and Aerospace Systems Convention, EASCON, 7-9 October 1974.
Topic:
air traffic control
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

The inclusion of airport surveillance radars (ASR) in an automated air traffic control system, such as the ARTS-III, has been limited by the present radar's capability to automatically reject ground clutter, weather clutter and angels while still maintaining good detectability on all aircraft within their coverage patterns. Analytical and experimental studies have been performed which indicate that new techniques can significantly enhance the automated capability of these radars. A special-purpose, hard-wired, digital signal processor has been designed, built and tested which provides near-optimum target detection over the entire ASR coverage out to 48 nmi. The processor which coherently integrates eight pulses has both a fine grained clutter map for optimal thresholding in high ground clutter environments and a mean-level thresholding scheme for filtering those Doppler cells which contain heavy precipitation. Because of the processor's ability to detect targets in a high ground clutter environment, the ASR's will be able to operate their antennas at lower elevation angles and, thus, have better coverage of low flying aircraft near the terminal. The processor is initially being tested on a highly modified, coherent S-band, FPR-18 radar. The stability of the klystron transmitter was improved so that it would not limit system performance and a new, wide dynamic range, linear receiver was provided.
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Summary

The inclusion of airport surveillance radars (ASR) in an automated air traffic control system, such as the ARTS-III, has been limited by the present radar's capability to automatically reject ground clutter, weather clutter and angels while still maintaining good detectability on all aircraft within their coverage patterns. Analytical and experimental...

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Advanced signal processing for airport surveillance radars

Comparison of the performance of the moving target detector and the radar video digitizer

April 26, 1977
  |
Project Report
Author:
Robert M. O'Donnell
…
Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report ATC-70
Topic:
surveillance
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Results of side by side simultaneous tests to compare the performance of the Moving Target Detector (MID) digital signal processor and that of a newly developed adaptive sliding window detector, the Radar Video Digitizer (RVD-4), are described. The MTD, used with a highly modified FPS-18, employs coherent linear doppler filtering, adaptive thresholding, and a fine grained clutter map which together reject all forms of clutter simultaneously. The RVD-4, which was used with an ASR-7, is a non-linear, non-coherent digital processor. The detection and false alarm performance of both processors in thermal noise was identical. Measured detection and sub-clutter visibility performance of the MTD on controlled aircraft flying in heavy rain, in heavy ground clutter, and at near-zero radial velocity is shown to be superior to that of the RVD-4. MID report data is also shown to be more accurate than the RVD-4 data resulting in improved ARTS-Ill tracker performance when using MID processed data.
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Summary

Results of side by side simultaneous tests to compare the performance of the Moving Target Detector (MID) digital signal processor and that of a newly developed adaptive sliding window detector, the Radar Video Digitizer (RVD-4), are described. The MTD, used with a highly modified FPS-18, employs coherent linear doppler filtering...

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Comparison of the performance of the moving target detector and the radar video digitizer

Description and performance evaluation of the moving target detector

March 8, 1977
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Project Report
Author:
Lincoln Cartledge
…
Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report ATC-69
Topic:
surveillance
R&D area:
R&D group:

Summary

Under FAA sponsorship, MIT, Lincoln Laboratory has developed new techniques which significantly enhance automated aircraft detection in all forms of clutter. These techniques are embodied in a digital signal processor called the Moving Target Detector (MTD). This processor has been integrated into the ARTS-III system at the National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey (NAFEC) and has undergone testing during the summer of 1975. This report contains a description of the MTD design and its evaluation tests. A detailed discussion of the significance of the results is also presented. The detection performance of the MTD was excellent in the clear, in rain and ground clutter, and false alarms were under complete control. The MTD processed range and azimuth data was very accurate, and the MTJI did not suffer from track dropouts as did the conventional MTI when the aircraft track became tangential to the radar. Performance was excellent on magnetron as well as klystron-type radars with the exception- of second-time-around clutter cancellation.
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Summary

Under FAA sponsorship, MIT, Lincoln Laboratory has developed new techniques which significantly enhance automated aircraft detection in all forms of clutter. These techniques are embodied in a digital signal processor called the Moving Target Detector (MTD). This processor has been integrated into the ARTS-III system at the National Aviation Facilities...

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Description and performance evaluation of the moving target detector
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