Tracks classification based on airway-track association for over-the-horizon radar

The ultimate task of over-the-horizon radar is to detect and track targets that we have interest in. It is difficult to pick them out from the output of tracks by a tracker. Considering a class of track identification problems with prior airways, based on the hypothesis testing and classification ideology, a track classification algorithm for over-the-horizon radar with multiple tracks and multiple airways is proposed. Based on the air corridor model built, both target position and direction information are used to correlate tracks with airways, thus obtaining the cost of a track generated by an airway target. Then tracks are divided into airways target tracks and non-airway ones. Simulation results show the correct classification probability of the proposed algorithm approaches to 90% under a moderate amount of airways.