Matrix fitting approach to direction of arrival estimation with imperfect spatial coherence of wavefronts

The performance of high-resolution direction of arrival (DOA) estimation methods significantly degrades in several practical situations where the wavefronts have imperfect spatial coherence. The original solution to this problem was proposed by Paulraj and Kailath, but their technique requires a priori knowledge of the matrix characterizing the loss of wavefront coherence along the array aperture. In this correspondence, a novel solution to this problem is proposed, which does not require a priori knowledge of the spatial coherence matrix.