SPx Track Manager
What is ‘slant range’ correction?
When radars measure the range to an airborne object, this is the ’Slant Range’ (the range measured at a slant, because the object is not on the ground). When the track for an airborne object is displayed on a PPI display at its Slant Range, it will appear to be further away from the radar than it really is. When the radar has a 3D capability and can measure the elevation of the target, as well its range, then basic trigonometry can be used to convert the Slant Range to corrected range. This will show the true position of the track over the ground on the PPI display. Slant Range effects are more significant when targets are closer to the radar and the elevation angle is higher. For example, if a radar measures the range to a track at a 45 degree elevation, then the Slant Range would need to be multiplied by cos(45), or 0.7071, to get the ground range of the object from the radar. If the object had an elevation of, say, just 5 degrees, then the correction factor would be 0.9962 meaning that the Slant Range and corrected range would be within 0.5% of each other.
My track source has a lot of false tracks all coming from an area of permanent clutter. These clutter tracks die out after a few revs of the radar. Can I filter out these false tracks using SPx Track Manager?
Yes you can. This is achieved by setting up two filter areas, one where the false tracks are started (inner zone), and another enclosing the area where the tracks usually die out (outer zone). The filter settings are then set to exclude tracks which are in the outer zone AND started in the inner zone. Tracks started outside the inner zone will not be filtered, and neither will tracks which make it to the outside of the outer zone (even if they started in the inner zone).
My track source doesn’t seem to be on the list of supported track formats. The track format is documented. What should I do?
Contact us - we have designed Track Manager to be extended to accommodate new track formats quickly and easily. There may a small NRE charge, but if you can share the track format documentation (under NDA, if necessary) we will be able to provide a fixed price quote quickly.
I have five radar ASTERIX track sources. All track sources require track filtering and format conversion. Track reports are supplied using the same network address:port details, but each radar has its own SAC/SIC codes. What variant of SPx Track Manager is required?
Although all the track reports are supplied on the same network address:port, there are five independent inputs distinguishable by the SAC/SIC codes. Each input can be processed and converted and output. A single input can have multiple outputs. Track filtering can be enabled/disabled on a per output channel basis, but the filter parameters are global to all channels. Track format conversion can be applied to each output and one input can have multiple outputs.
The variant requires a runtime licence based on the number of output streams required.