AOA estimation with merged measurements from squint beam monopulse data in conjunction with multiple range samples
George C. Brown, William Dale Blair, Terrence L. Ogle · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2003
A key assumption in monopulse based angle-of-arrival (AOA) estimators is that at most one return from a single object is present in each range cell, or equivalently in each sample of the matched filter output. These algorithms break down if the data consists of merged measurements-multiple target returns contained in the same range cell. The proposed technique makes use of data from a three channel monopulse radar to estimate the AOA of two targets from merged measurements. Specifically, the technique capitalizes on the structure of squint beams in conjunction with multiple range samples to resolve the multiple targets. The paper focuses on the development of the new algorithm along with results from computer simulations that demonstrate its viability. To illustrate the utility of this technique to target tracking problems, comparative Monte Carlo results of performance of a tracker with the new technique and conventional monopulse AOA estimates are provided.