Andre Adrian - Kalman Filter

In air traffic control surveillance radars measure the positions of the aircrafts in flight. A Kalman Filter as central tracker can be used to improve the position information - at least this is the theory. Next to smoothed position a Kalman Filter gives velocity estimate. The filter state can be used to extrapolate the aircraft position for functions like Short Term Conflict alert or bearing vector.

The papers describe a central tracker that is in use at the german air traffic control agency DFS.

Conversion of Mode-C altitude into real altitude (PDF)

2002 paper about coordinate transformation (Powerpoint)

2003 paper about Mode-S enhancement of the tracker (PDF)

2004 paper about turnrate estimation (PDF)

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