To obtain a method and an apparatus in which a tracking processing operation is performed according to the kind of a target and in which a high tracking performance is realized, by taking into consideration that a bypass action due to a restriction on a landform is different.

In this tracking processing method, whether the estimated position of a target calculated by a tracking processing operation is a reachable position or not is judged by referring to the kind of the target and to information on a landform, and whether a correlation gate is expanded or not is decided. A bypass action is estimated according to the kind of the target. When the target is reached by crossing a river, a lake, a marsh or the like and when the target is reached by bypassing it, a tracking processing operation which follows a change in the course of the target can be performed. The unnecessary expansion of the correlation gate is suppressed, and the continuity of the tracking operation of the target is enhanced.