Alexey N. Simonov – Ph.D.(Eng), Associate Professor
Zuraf F. Shaidulin – Ph.D.(Eng), Associate Professor
Vitaly V. Grigorev – Post-graduate Student
Denis S. Kuzin – Post-graduate Student

Polarization direction-finding relies on the transverse properties of a plane electromagnetic wave to obtain information about the direction to the source of radio emission, while traditional approaches use the measurement of time delays of the phase front at distanced points in space. For the implementation of polarization direction finding, special vector antennas are used to provide an estimate of the spatial position of vectors of electric and magnetic fields, and in traditional approaches, scalar antenna arrays of spaced antenna elements are used. Undoubtedly, the combination of the two approaches should provide a gain in the accuracy of estimating the direction to the sources of radio emissions. Like any estimate, direction finding accuracy is limited from below by a potentially achievable boundary. The indicated potential accuracy is the basis for studying the statistical properties and capabilities of direction finding methods.
The aim of the work is to study the statistical properties of direction finding using a vector distributed antenna, consisting of a set of orthogonal electric and magnetic dipoles distanced in space. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the potentially achievable accuracy of estimating the direction to the source of radio emission, as well as to the study of the influence of spatial and polarization parameters of radio emission on direction finding errors.
The assumptions made in the analysis of the potential accuracy of direction finding are presented. The statistical model of the measured signal in the vector distributed antenna is refined. The resulting expressions are given for the lower Cramer-Rao boundary for estimating spatial parameters in a vector distributed antenna. As an indicator of the effectiveness of polarization direction finding, the root mean square angular error is selected, combining errors in azimuth and elevation. An analysis is made of the potential accuracy of direction finding using a vector distributed antenna, the results of which show the dependence of the mean-square angular error on the spatial, polarization, and energy parameters of radio emission. The possibilities of distributed vector antennas of various spatial configurations are studied.
The presented results can be used in a comparative analysis of the capabilities of existing and developed methods of polarization direction finding.

Simonov A.N., Shaidulin Z.F., Grigorev V.V., Kuzin D.S. Analysis of potential direction finding accuracy using a vector distributed antenna. Electromagnetic waves and electronic systems. 2020. V. 25. № 6. P. 21−31. DOI: 10.18127/j15604128-202006-03. (in Russian)

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