Properties of the monopulse direction finding of microwave sources in an environment with many emitters

Abstract

Direction finding that is establishing an angle position of microwave sources is an important element of reconnaissance of electromagnetic space and threat warning tasks. For these purposes, direction finding of sources, which are operating transiently and irregularly is especially significant, as well as difficult to accomplish. In these cases, the direction of the emission source is established on the basis of a single pulse, using the phase method or the amplitude method. The precision of direction finding for a single microwave emitter is relatively good. It may not exceed a tenth of a degree over the wide frequency range. In operating conditions, where strong disturbances exist, for instance with several sources operating simultaneously, results of direction finding may have a significant error. Ideas of monopulse direction finding using amplitude methods and phase methods were described in the work. Results of simulation for a single microwave emitter, as well as multiple emitters operating simultaneously were presented. It was shown that when multiple sources operate at the same time, the direction finding process becomes interrupted, but an intra-pulse analysis of received signals enables reduction of the error of angle position measurement of each observed emitters.