Angle estimation and mutual coupling self-calibration for ULA-based bistatic MIMO radar.

•We investigate angle estimation and mutual coupling self-calibration for ULA-based bistatic MIMO radar.•A PARAFAC-based two-step coarse/refined procedure is utilized for angle estimation.•The mutual coupling coefficients corresponding to the transmit array and the receive array are obtained via least square separately.•The proposed method brings no virtual aperture loss and achieves more accurate angle and mutual coupling estimation performance than the existing methods.