New method for estimating 2-D DOA in the coherent source environment based on data matrix reconstruction

The performance of classical two dimensional (2-D) Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms degrade substantially in the presence of coherent environment. A new DOA matrix method——DOA matrix method based on data matrix reconstruction (DMR-DOAM) is proposed for 2-D DOA estimation in the coherent source environment. The proposed algorithm reconstructs two Toeplitz equivalent covariance matrices by using cross-correlation information among receiving data from arrays. Decorrelation and 2-D DOA estimation can be realized via the eigen-decomposition of the new DOA matrix. The algorithm can retain the advantages of the traditional DOA matrix method, such as automatical parameter alignment and no need of 2-D search spectrum peak. The equivalent covariance matrices only use the middle column of classical covariance matrices, so the calculation amount is reduced, and the algorithm can be realized easily. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the estimation performance and influencing factors of the proposed algorithm. Theoretical analyses and simulation results both show that the proposed algorithm is effective.