Abstract: An effective joint target tracking and classification technology, which uses the radio frequency modulation (FM) signals transmitted by the commercial broadcast stations on ground, based on the aerodynamic model and RCS observation is proposed for the ground-based passive warning radars for monitoring the low altitude penetration incoming targets. The aerodynamic model is used to describe the translation and rotation of target, and the specific parameters of a particular type of aircraft are transferred to the tracker to realize the aerodynamic model-based tracking; at the same time, the radar cross section (RCS) is included in the observation to provide the main classification featuers, and the outputs of the tracker are used to predict the RCS value. Therefore, tracking and classification are coupled tightly to give full play to the advantage of joint tracking and classification, effectively improving the tracking performance and classification probability. In the implementation of this technology, the electromagnetic simulation software FEKO is applied to obtain the target’s real-time RCS observation; this joint tracking and classification is realized by particle filtering. A simulation platform for the FM signal-based target tracking and classification by passive radar is built. The simulation results show that the interacting multiple model regularized particle filter works better than the interacting multiple model particle filter in tracking accuracy and classification probability.

Key words: radar engineering, aerodynamic model, radar cross section, joint tracking and classification, FEKO electromagnetic simulation software, particle filtering