Patent ID: 7952521

Claim:
A method of multiparameter direction finding of emitters using an array of N sensors for receiving signals and an observation vector corresponding to the received signals, the received signals being a function of directions of arrival θ m (1≦m≦M) of the M emitters and a plurality of nuisance parameters N is an integer greater than 1, the method comprising: a) selecting one of the directions of arrival (θ) corresponding to one of the M emitters to be first determined, other non-selected ones of the directions of arrival and the nuisance parameters being grouped as a set of secondary parameters (Φ 0 ); b) expressing a direction vector (b 0 ) in the form of a linear combination that separates the selected one of the directions of arrival (θ) from the set of secondary parameters (Φ 0 ):bb 0 (θ, Φ 0 )=U 0 (θ)φ 0 *(Φ 0 ); c) applying a MUSIC (MUltiple Signal Classification) algorithm direction finding step by factorizing a MUSIC criterion for the determination of the selected one of the directions of arrival, the MUSIC criterion used in the MUSIC procedure comprising the ratio of the determinants of the matrices Q 1 (θ)=U(θ) H Π b U(θ) and Q 2 (θ)=U(θ) H U(θ), where Π b referring to projected noise; d) on the basis of determined one or more of the directions of arrival, selecting another one of the directions of arrival θ m to be determined and grouping non-selected ones of the directions of arrival and the nuisance parameters as another set of secondary parameters Φ m and expressing another direction vector b m in the form of a linear combination that separates the selected another one of the directions of arrival (θ m ) from the another set of secondary parameters (Φ m ): b m (θ m , Φ m )=U m (θ m )γ(Φ m ); e) applying the MUSIC algorithm direction finding step by factorizing a criterion for the determination of the selected another one of the directions of arrival θ m ; and f) repeating steps d) to e) in order to determine another component of the another set of secondary parameters (Φ m ); wherein the nuisance parameters includes distances of the emitters in terms of spherical wavefront, frequency bands of the signals, coupling coefficients of the array, cone widths of emitters, or polarizations of signals.