A SUBARRAY-SYNTHESIS BASED 2D DOA ESTIMATION METHOD

In some satellite communications, we need to perform Direction Of Arrival (DOA) angle estima- tion under the restriction that the number of receivers is less than that of the array elements in an array antenna. To solve the conundrum, a method named subarray-synthesis-based Two-Dimensional DOA (2D DOA) angle estimation is proposed. In the method, firstly, the array antenna is divided into a series of subarray antennas based on the total number of receivers; secondly, the subarray antennas’ output covariance matrices are esti- mated; thirdly, an equivalent covariance matrix is synthesized based on the subarray output covariance matri- ces; then 2D DOA estimation is performed. Monte Carlo simulations showed that the estimation method is ef- fective.