Pre-processing algorithm for tracking multiple targets with a phased-array radar

In this paper, the phenomenon of observation multiplicity in the search mode for phased-array radar is studied and a pre- processing algorithm to eliminate redundant observations is proposed. At first, the emergence probabilities of the redundant observations are derived. It is shown that these probabilities depend on signal-to-noise and the spacing between adjacent beams. Second, a priori knowledge of the maximum number of the observations to be merged and the maximum mergence range are introduced to the pre-processing method. At last, the measurement's error before and after the mergence is calculated, and the performance of this method is evaluated and compared with those methods without any limitations.