Target DOA Estimation Based on Robust Deterministic STAP

Abstract:
A novel approach for target direction of arrival (DOA) estimation based on deterministic space time adaptive processing (STAP) is presented. Deterministic STAP [1] represents a valid alternative to stochastic STAP in fast varying interference scenarios, due to its intrinsic single snapshot interference cancellation characteristics. On the other hand, in its classical derivation, detection performances of deterministic STAP are severely deteriorated in case of uncertainty in the knowledge of the exact target DOA. Reformulating the deterministic STAP problem in terms of convex optimization, a robust deterministic STAP technique has been derived in [2] which takes into account a possible mismatch between the nominal and the actual target DOA. In this paper, the robust deterministic STAP filter is applied to retrieve an accurate estimation of the actual target DOA based on a closed form formula. Such target DOA estimates may serve in tracking scenarios to keep updated the target parameters knowledge in successive coherent processing intervals (CPIs).