An efficient method for computing azimuth and elevation angle estimates from monopulse ratio measurements of a phased array pencil beam radar with two-dimensional angle steering

Abstract

An efficient method is required for computing azimuth and elevation angle estimates from azimuth and elevation monopulse ratio measurements of a phased array pencil beam radar with beam steering in both azimuth and elevation. Computational load requirements are inherently high because typically several thousand clutter target reports per scan survive the thresholds of the target detection logic. Monopulse editing is relied upon to merge likely target reports or discard clutter targets with azimuth and elevation angle estimates outside of either beamwidth. This paper describes an efficient and accurate method for computing angle estimates by means of polynomial equation least mean square curve fitting. Theoretical plots of angle estimation accuracy are presented for a specific example of a phased array radar with 100 rows and 100 columns of elemental antennas.