Propagator methods for finding wideband source parameters

In this paper, an investigation of the passive angular location of sources using an array of sensors is presented. First, the propagator method, which is an algebraic and linear operator extracted from the cross-spectral matrix of the received data, is extended to the wideband signals through the transformation matrices. This development reduces the rather expensive eigendecomposition of cross-spectral matrices at each frequency of the analysis bandwidth used in the well known eigenstructure high-resolution methods. Then, in the presence of white noise with different powers along the array, a new partitioned propagator method is developed which improves the localisation of the sources. This improvement is based on a particular choice of the partition of the matrix corresponding to the propagation operator. The developed method is also used to estimate the antenna shape from the received wideband signals. It is well known, in the narrowband case, that the interest of knowing of the antenna shape is illustrated by the improvement of the signal to noise ratio and the antenna directivity. The results of simulations are provided to illustrate the theoretical predictions.