  A new class of disturbance covariance matrix estimators for radar signal
processing applications is introduced following a geometric paradigm. Each
estimator is associated with a given unitary invariant norm and performs the
sample covariance matrix projection into a specific set of structured
covariance matrices. Regardless of the considered norm, an efficient solution
technique to handle the resulting constrained optimization problem is
developed. Specifically, it is shown that the new family of distribution-free
estimators shares a shrinkagetype form; besides, the eigenvalues estimate just
requires the solution of a one-dimensional convex problem whose objective
function depends on the considered unitary norm. For the two most common norm
instances, i.e., Frobenius and spectral, very efficient algorithms are
developed to solve the aforementioned one-dimensional optimization leading to
almost closed form covariance estimates. At the analysis stage, the performance
of the new estimators is assessed in terms of achievable Signal to Interference
plus Noise Ratio (SINR) both for a spatial and a Doppler processing assuming
different data statistical characterizations. The results show that interesting
SINR improvements with respect to some counterparts available in the open
literature can be achieved especially in training starved regimes.
