A coherent direction of arrival estimation method using a single pulse

•Our method is effective for a single pulse.•Our angle estimation algorithm is suitable for both coherent sources and incoherent sources.•Compared to the existed methods, the angle estimation performance of our algorithm has obvious improvement.

This paper addresses the problem of coherent direction of arrival (DOA) estimation in monostatic multi-input multi-output (MIMO) radar using a single pulse, and links the trilinear model to derive a coherent DOA estimation method. We use the received data to construct a set of Toeplitz matrices through which a trilinear model is formed, and then the trilinear decomposition is used to attain the DOAs of sources. The proposed algorithm is effective for a single pulse. Compared to the forward backward spatial smoothing estimation method of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT), the ESPRIT-like of Han, and the ESPRIT-like of Li algorithms, our method has better angle estimation performance. Numerical simulations present the effectiveness and improvement of our approach.

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