Passive near-field localization of multiple non-Gaussian sources in 3-D using cumulants

In this paper an eigendecomposition technique based on cumulant matrices is proposed to passively localize narrowband non-Gaussian sources in the spherical coordinates, viz., azimuth, elevation and range, using signals recorded by a centro-symmetric 2-D cross array. The high-resolution algorithm exploits the multiple degrees of freedom available from cumulants to transform the near-field data into pseudo-data collected by a virtual rectangular array observing virtual far-field sources. The source locations are estimated directly from eigenvalues of certain cumulant matrices, thereby eliminating the multi-dimensional search inherent in the traditional methods like 3-D MUSIC. The centrosymmetric structure lost by a uniform linear array in the presence of near-field sources, is restored in the virtual rectangular array thus allowing efficient real-valued processing via Unitary ESPRIT. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.