An Overview of Major Terrestrial, Celestial, and Temporal Coordinate Systems for Target Tracking

Abstract : Coordinate systems useful for those designing target tracking algorithms are discussed. Strict internationally recognized definitions of terrestrial and celestial coordinate systems are addressed, as well as a number of other lesser coordinate systems that arise when dealing with data typically used in target tracking algorithms. International organizations defining standard systems are indicated, as well as where to obtain data. Limitations in the data are demonstrated and methods for determining one s orientation using gravitation and magnetic measurements, as well as using stars, are presented. The report focuses on implementing the coordinate-system standards using freely available data and software but does not provide specific details on the strict definitions of all of the standards. More detailed information sources are provided in an extensive reference list. So readers can better reproduce the results in this report, summaries of the sources of the data and external code used in creating the plots in the report are provided. All online sources in this report were verified as of April 2015 or later. Even if high-precision global coordinate system definitions are not necessary to meet the basic requirements of a tracking network, they can be necessary in evaluating the performance of tracking algorithms in such a network.