System and method for central association and tracking in passive coherent location applications

Abstract

A system and method for central association and tracking for PCL applications is disclosed. Detection reports are received at a target tracking processing system. The detection reports include measurements correlating to line tracks associated with target echoes in earlier processing operations. In addition, other information, such as parameters and observables, are received by the target track processing system. The target track processing system performs a line track association function and a track filtering function on the line tracks according to the measurements within the detection reports. These operations also predict and estimate target parameters for tracking. Target parameters are extrapolated from the propagated and updated target tracks, and fed to a display for a user, or back into the PCL system for further processing.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for associating a line track with a target for a passive coherent location system, comprising: 
 receiving a detection report having said line track corresponding to said target;    computing a target state using measurements of said line track;    computing a state covariance using said measurement of said line track;    scoring said line track according to said target state and said state covariance; and    assigning said line track to a target track according to said scoring.