Abstract: A method and apparatus for localizing a point within a sector of a physical surface such as an airport surface that is represented by a plurality of line segments. After entering the physical surface representation, a list of polygons is generated wherein each entry in the list of polygons includes a list of constituent line segments. Then, the list of polygons is organized into a binary tree to encode the relative positions of the polygons. With this organized binary tree, the object can be localized within a polygonal sector by dropping a point representing the object down the binary tree to determine which polygon, if any, encloses the point.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for discriminating between false images created by multipath and an aircraft of interest in an air traffic control environment by maintaining a three-dimensional database in the area of interest of the air traffic control environment, the three-dimensional database including a position of a radar radiation source, three-dimensional positions, orientations, and sizes of fixed reflectors and three-dimensional positions, orientations, and sizes of non-fixed reflectors; receiving return radar radiation from an unknown object; classifying the unknown object as an aircraft of interest if the return radiation from the unknown object correlates with previous returns; and classifying the unknown object by searching for a plurality of candidate reflectors and if a sum of the distances between the plurality of candidate reflectors is approximately equal to a distance between the unknown object and the radar radiation source, classifying the unknown object as a false image created by multipath.