Phase Monopulse Error Due to Nonuniform Noise Background

A phase monopulse antenna system can be used for the high accuracy tracking of active or passive objects in space or on earth. Far-field noise sources that are present in the background of the object being tracked will introduce an offset or bias error in the determination of the angle of incidence of the coherent sinusoidal wave received from the source. The dependency of this bias error upon the nonuniformity of the noise background or equivalently upon the asymmetry of the antenna patterns about the direction to the signal being tracked is determined. Although the variance in the measurement of the sinusoidal source direction can be reduced by increasing the post detection integration time, it is shown that the bias or offset error is unaffected by this change. In order to decrease the offset or bias error the predetection bandwidth must be reduced.