Joint 2D-DOA and polarization estimation for sparse nonuniform rectangular array composed of spatially spread electromagnetic vector sensor

Abstract

In this paper, a sparse nonuniform rectangular array based on spatially spread electromagnetic vector sensor (SNRA-SSEMVS) is introduced, and a method for estimating 2D-direction of arrival (DOA) and polarization is devised. Firstly, according to the special structure of the sparse nonuniform rectangular array (SNRA), a set of accurate but ambiguous direction-cosine estimates can be obtained. Then the steering vector of spatially spread electromagnetic vector sensor (SSEMVS) can be extracted from the array manifold to obtain the coarse but unambiguous direction-cosine estimates. Finally, the disambiguation approach can be used to get the final accurate estimates of 2D-DOA and polarization. Compared with some existing methods, the SNRA configuration extends the spatial aperture and refines the parameters estimation accuracy without adding any redundant antennas, as well as reduces the mutual coupling effect. Moreover, the proposed algorithm resolves multiple sources without the priori knowledge of signal information, suffers no ambiguity in the estimation of the Poynting vector, and pairs the x-Axis direction cosine with the y-Axis direction cosine automatically. Simulation results are given to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm.