The concepts, systems and method described herein provide direction finding (DF) methods based on a minimum distance (MINDIST) search to principal components. In an embodiment, the method includes capturing samples of data from one or more array elements. The samples may be samples of a signal received at the array elements. The method includes generating a spatial sample covariance matrix (SCM) using the samples of data, extracting principal components from the SCM and generating a principal component table using angle and frequency measurement for each of the principal components. The method further includes determining a distance between a test point and each value in the principal component table and identifying a minimum distance point corresponding to a direction of the received signal. The minimum distance point may correspond to direction of arrival of a signal on the one or more array elements.