Beamspace domain bearing estimation for fast target localization using an array of antennas

The authors develop a novel eigen-based bearing estimation scheme for monopulse radar tracking. The eigen-based estimator is chosen in light of its high accuracy. Specifically, the authors derive the MUSIC estimator of the target angle for the amplitude comparison monopulse radar, when given as data, two beams formed by processing the entire set of array signals with two different sets of weights. The conversion to 2D beamspace domain in this fashion facilitates a simple, closed-form MUSIC procedure when a generalized Butler-type beamformer is employed. It is shown that, under certain approximations, the MUSIC estimator reduces to the conventional amplitude/sum-and-difference estimator