Source localization using a distorted antenna

A method is proposed for estimating both the outline of a distorted array antenna and the bearings of some incident plane waves. This is possible if locations are known for a number of sensors equal to the number of remote sources present. Using an operator named the propagator, which can be extracted adaptively from the data, the shape of the whole antenna can be restored, and thus the usual superresolutive direction-finding algorithms can be applied efficiently. Owing to the adaptive character of the method, the case of time-varying antenna shape and/or moving sources can also be handled. This method is particularly useful when the number of sensors is much greater than the number of sources, and it imposes only a low computational burden