Near-field source location with an L-band widely-spaced 4-element random array

The ability to estimate the location of a source within the near-field of a random, widely-spaced array is demonstrated in this paper. An adaptation of the MUSIC algorithm to search for sources in the near-field of an array is applied to data collected using a widely-space 4-element array to find the three-dimensional (bearing, elevation and range) location of the source within an anechoic chamber. The 4-element array used is custom-designed with a hardwired coherent local oscillator and with the capability to be widely and randomly spaced.