A New Estimation Method Based on Feature Difference for Coherent Source

According to the characteristics of feature difference of the data covariance matrix from uniform antenna array, the authors propose a new method of detecting the number of sources, this method can accurately estimate the number of sources in the following case of high degree of source coherences, and small difference between the incident angles. First, the antenna array data covariance matrix is decoherented, and then use the transformation criterion of characteristic difference for calculating the appropriate threshold, at last use the threshold to determine the number of sources.