Elevation angle measurement for low‐angle targets using synthesized pattern null method

This study proposes a novel method, that is, synthesized pattern null (SPN) method. The SPN method has very low computational complexity, which can be fully applied to all range‐azimuth resolution cells of the actual radar system. It does not depend on the multipath propagation model and has good robustness. This study presents the derivation process, the simulation results, and comparative experimental results of the actual radar system. The results reveal that the SPN method can significantly reduce the elevation angle error for low‐angle targets, and the root mean square error (RMSE) can be reduced to about 1/15 beam width. Moreover, compared with the synthesized vector maximum likelihood method, this method has similar angle measurement performance, much lower computational complexity and better robustness.