On High Angular Resolution Processing for Multiple Targets Detection in Passive Underwater Sensor Array Systems

This paper presents a high angular resolution processing approach for improved detection of multiple targets in passive underwater sensor array systems. These array processing systems are used for surveillance and detection of both surface and subsurface targets. Two beamforming techniques namely FFT based beamformer and MVDR beamformer along with two types of energy detection techniques namely CED and PED have been discussed. MATLAB simulations of these techniques have been developed and applied to data acquired through a passive uniform circular array. The simulation results showed that MVDR beamformer with PED for energy detection is the most suitable processing approach for high angular resolution in terms of detecting close space targets in the 3600 angular spectrum.