Continuous-Discrete Filtering for Dim Manoeuvring Maritime Targets

Real radar data containing a small manoeuvring boat in sea clutter is processed using a grid based finite difference implementation of continuous-discrete filtering. Both two dimensional diffusion and four dimensional constant velocity models are implemented using Gaussian and Rayleigh sea clutter models. Superior performance is observed for the constant velocity model and significant sensitivity is noted due to mismatches between actual clutter characteristics and Gaussian and Rayleigh models. A simple likelihood ratio thresholding technique is shown to provide a significant performance improvement. Keywords: Track-Before-Detect, continuous-discrete filtering, maritime target tracking.