2-D DOA Estimation for L-Shaped Array with Automatic Pair-Matching and Source Demerging

The estimation of two-dimensional (2-D) direction-of-arrival (DOA), i.e. elevation (6) and azimuth ($\varphi$) angles for the same sources, by using L-shaped array is an open research region. During recent years, many methods addressing this problem have emerged. Although the methods introduced in literatures may perform well in many scenarios, most of them will fail in the “1-D merging” scenarios that two or more sources have the same 6 or $\sin\theta\cos\varphi$, which may occasionally happen when we monitoring multiple realtime moving space targets. A DOA estimation method addressing this issue for L-shaped array is developed, which can estimate elevation and azimuth angles simultaneously. The proposed method not only achieves automatic pair-matching, but also realizes source demerging for “1-D merging” scenarios. The estimation performance is verified by numerical simulations, and the results show that the proposed method can resolve sources in various scenarios (including the “1-D merging” scenarios) and provide better estimation accuracy compared with the existing ones.