An Introduction to Vessel Tracking in HFSWRs Based on a High-Resolution Range-Doppler Map: Some Preliminary Results and Challenges

High-resolution primary signal processing in High Frequency Surface Wave Radars contributes to an overall performance increase of such systems. The essential, but most complex part of the processing is a range-Doppler map estimation, which can also be used in tracking of vessels, practically at the same time as the detection process lasts. In this paper, we propose a method which is different from the classical ways of tracking and it is based on a range-Doppler map. We tested the hypothesis that the detections of a vessel in successive timestamps are grouped (chained), but also that there is an overlapping of the contours of the criterion functions of successive detections in the range-Doppler map, which is the basis for the formulation of a criterion for the consistency of detections and a step towards an innovative vessel tracking. It was shown that this hypothesis is correct, which represents a very important conclusion related to some future applications. The paper contains the detailed method description and some preliminary results based on experimentally obtained data.