Basic tracking using nonlinear 3D monostatic and bistatic measurements in refractive environments

The deleterious effects of atmospheric refraction are often overlooked in work on target tracking. This tutorial shows how the effects of refraction can be directly incorporated into tracking algorithms, improving the performance of tracking algorithms that make use of monostatic and bistatic measurements. Additionally, a technique for converting measurements from the radar's refraction-corrupted local coordinate system (typically bistatic r – u – v coordinates) into Cartesian coordinates is presented. The refraction-compensation algorithms can be used with arbitrary refraction models for which ray tracing techniques for solving boundary value problems and initial value problems are available, though extensions to more complicated propagation scenarios are possible. The algorithms are run on a simple exponential refraction model to demonstrate their effectiveness. This tutorial builds upon the tutorial entitled “Basic Tracking Using Nonlinear 3D Monostatic and Bistatic Measurements” and is complemented by the companion tutorial “Basic Tracking Using Nonlinear Continuous-Time Dynamic Models.”