Monopulse-Radar Angle Estimation of Multiple Targets using Multiple Observations

Amplitude comparison monopulse systems encounter the target resolution problem when multiple targets occupy the same range-azimuth cell. To solve this problem, a new angle estimation approach is proposed. The traditional range-cell-based signal processing is improved by modeling the signal in the frequency domain. Thus, the range straddling loss and the range migration problem can be avoided. The closely spaced targets in the same range-azimuth cell can be well resolved by the jointly maximum likelihood estimation of the range and velocity of the targets. Then, the angle estimates are extracted by using the monopulse ratio technique with the estimated parameters of the resolved targets in the two channels. Furthermore, the RELAX algorithm is utilized to reduce the computational burden of the proposed approach. The performance of the proposed estimator is evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation.