Processing spatially aliased arrays

A linear array can detect a plane wave signal at a wrong bearing if the signal wavelengths are shorter than twice the distance between the closest adjacent sensors. This phenomenon, called spatial aliasing, is most pronounced when the bearing is near endfire. This paper presents a method for correcting spatial aliasing of broadband signals using the frequency‐wavenumber approach to array processing. Also presented is a method for averaging the ω‐κ spectrum values that will give a more accurate bearing estimator than the method presented in a 1973 JASA article by Clay, Hinich, and Shaman [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 53, 1161 (1973)]. The methods discussed in this paper can be used for a sparse unequally spaced array which is detecting a dispersive signal.