Approach of system error registration for two‐station coast radars for sea surface monitoring

Abstract

In the multi-radar tracking system, multi-radar data fusion technology can improve the detection and tracking capabilities of radar. Besides, the spatial registration processing of radar data can effectively calibrate the radar system error and improve the fusion accuracy. In this study, the system error registration for two-station coast radars based on non-cooperative targets is implemented by using the exact maximum likelihood spatial registration algorithm (EML). On the basis of the EML algorithm, this study proposes a selection method for the corresponding targets. The selection method that facilitates the application of the EML algorithm can automatically complete the clipping, alignment and registration of the track information. For the defect that the EML algorithm is easy to fall into the local minimum in the iterative processing, the data inspection method based on the minimum root mean square test is proposed in this study, which can further improve the exactitude of the system error estimation. Compared with direct fusion, the plot fusion accuracy of the two-station coast radars is significantly improved after the spatial registration of the EML algorithm.