What is track quality and how does it affect decisions?

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Track quality is a measure of how confident you can be in the tracked target data. When the track quality is high, the position and velocity inputs feeding the ARPA system are reliable, so the predicted closest point of approach (CPA) and the time to CPA (TCPA) are dependable. That means you can base avoidance decisions on those predictions with greater assurance. If track quality is low, the track may be uncertain due to factors like clutter, rapid maneuvers, or inconsistent measurements, so CPA/TCPA predictions become less trustworthy. In that case you should proceed with caution: re-acquire or verify the target, increase surveillance, and cross-check with other information before committing to maneuver decisions. The color of display markers, target speed, or radar power settings aren’t what track quality represents, so they don’t inform decisions in the same way.