Meter Wave Polarization-Sensitive Array Radar for Height Measurement Based on MUSIC Algorithm

Obtaining good measurement performance with meter wave radar has always been a difficult problem. Especially in low-elevation areas, the multipath effect seriously affects the measurement accuracy of meter wave radar. The generalized multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm is a well-known measurement method that dose not require decorrelation processing. The polarization-sensitive array (PSA) has the advantage of polarization diversity, and the polarization smoothing generalized MUSIC algorithm demonstrates good angle estimation performance in low-elevation areas when based on a PSA. Nevertheless, its computational complexity is still high, and the estimation accuracy and discrimination success probability need to be further improved. In addition, it cannot estimate the polarization parameters. To solve these problems, a polarization synthesis steering vector MUSIC algorithm is proposed in this paper. First, the MUSIC algorithm is used to obtain the spatial spectrum of the meter wave PSA. Second, the received data are properly deformed and classified. The Rayleigh–Ritz method is used to decompose the angle to realize the decoupling of polarization and the direction of the arrival angle. Third, the geometric relationship and prior information of the direct wave and the reflected wave are used to continue dimension reduction processing to reduce the computational complexity of the algorithm. Finally, the geometric relationship is used to obtain the target height measurement results. Extensive simulation results illustrate the accuracy and superiority of the proposed algorithm.