On combining adaptive nullsteering with high resolution angle estimation under main lobe interference conditions

When adaptive nullsteering is applied to attenuate interfering signals which are received via the main lobe, two limitations manifest themselves: the sidelobe level increases and the peak of the main beam shifts away from the desired look direction (squinted main beam). A two-step method is described which maintains angular accuracy even under main lobe interference conditions. In the first step, adaptive nullsteering is performed to enable the detection of targets; the distortion of the main beam is allowed. In the second step, high-resolution angle estimation techniques are used to obtain the angles of the target and the interference sources. The procedure requires prior knowledge of the number of interfering signals; an interference map can be used to provide this information.<>