A Novel 2D Off-Grid DOA Estimation Method Based on Compressive Sensing and Least Square Optimization

For two-dimensional (2D) direction of arrival (DOA) estimation in a uniform rectangular array (URA), the conventional method converts the 2D problem into a one-dimensional (1D) problem; however, the computational complexity is high, and the accuracy is limited by the grid interval. To address this issue, based on sparse representation theory and a separable observation model (SPM), this paper presents a novel off-grid-framework-based 2D DOA estimation approach by designing a modified 2D off-grid model and a solution for the multisnapshot case in the SPM. The proposed algorithm can be divided into two stages. In the first stage, we use a matching pursuit and focal underdetermined system solver (MFOCUSS) algorithm to quickly identify the candidate or potential areas where the true sources may exist. In the second stage, the candidate areas obtained in the first stage are regarded as the initialization. Then, for a specific source, we regard other sources as interference. By using an alternating descent method, we can obtain accurate DOAs. Moreover, based on the equivalence of time delay and spatial spacing, a 2D off-grid method for multisnapshot cases is proposed in this paper. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.