A Simplified DOA Estimation Method Based on Correntropy in the Presence of ImpuIsive Noise

Many approaches have been studied in the field of array signal processing when impulsive noise is modeled with an alpha-stable distribution. By introducing the correntropy, which exhibits a robust statistics property, this paper defines a correntropy-based (COB) operator that provides a powerful mechanism to eliminate the detrimental effect of outliers in alpha-stable distributed noise environments. To improve computational efficiency, we apply the unitary transformation to the COB upper triangular Toeplitz matrix and construct a novel real-valued approximate estimation matrix with a MUSIC-like algorithm. On the basis of guaranteeing the accuracy of the direction of arrival estimation, the proposed algorithm also significantly reduces the computational complexity of the calculations. Comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more robust than the existing algorithms in terms of the probability of resolution and root-mean-square-error, especially in the presence of highly impulsive noise or low generalized signal-to-noise ratio.