In this paper, we consider a coherently distributed (CD) source model. Since the CD source is characterized by four parameters: central azimuth direction-of-arrival (DOA), azimuth angular spread, central elevation DOA and elevation angular spread, the parameter estimation is normally complex. We propose an algorithm that combines the rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) and the generalized ESPRIT algorithm for the 2-dimensional (2D) central DOA estimation of CD sources. Using a pair of uniform circular arrays (UCAs), the proposed solution is able to obtain the central DOAs with both high accuracy and low computational complexity. The central elevation DOAs are estimated by using the rotational invariance relation between the two uniform circular sub-arrays. Based on the centrosymmetric structure of UCA, the generalized ESPRIT algorithm is then applied to estimate the central azimuth DOAs through one-dimensional searching. It is noteworthy that the central DOAs are estimated without any information of the deterministic angular distribution function (DADF). The performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated via computer simulations.

In this letter, we propose an algorithm for the 2-dimensional (2D) direction of arrival (DOA) estimation of noncircular coherently distributed (CD) sources using the centrosymmetric array. For a centrosymmetric array, we prove that the angular signal distributed weight (ASDW) vector of the CD source has a symmetric structure. To estimate azimuth and elevation angle, we perform a 2D searching based on generalized ESPRIT algorithm. The significant superiority of the proposed algorithm is that, the 2D central directions of CD sources can be found independently of deterministic angular distributed function (DADF). Simulations results verify the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.