Abstract: Aiming at the problem that the traditional direction of arrival（DOA） estimation algorithm does not have high estimation accuracy under the conditions of low signal-to-noise ratio and small snapshots, a multi-snapshot DOA estimation method based on the iterative shrinkage threshold algorithm for vector hydrophone arrays is proposed. Firstly, the airspace domain is divided into equal angles, and an ultracomplete redundant dictionary is constructed to establish a DOA estimation model based on the multi-fastbeat condition of the signal. Then,the iterative shrinkage threshold algorithm is used to solve the sparse reconstruction problem, and the sparse coefficient matrix of the signal is solved. Finally, the paradigms of the row vectors in the sparse matrix are mapped onto the well-demarcated mesh, and the DOA estimation value is obtained. Simulation experimental results show that the method has higher DOA estimation accuracy and stronger robustness than traditional algorithms such as OMP, MUSIC and CBF algorithms under low signal-to-noise ratio and small snap conditions.