Abstract: In order to improve the accuracy of direction of arrival(DOA) estimation and decrease calculation capacity with low SNR, a new real-valued propagator method(PM) for 2-D DOA estimation algorithm using cross-correlation matrix (UC-PM) was proposed. Instead of array received data, cross-correlation matrix was constructed to suppress the effect of noise, and eigen-decomposition was replaced by a linear operator with low calculation capacity. Meanwhile, for reducing the complexity further, a new real-valued rotational invariance matrix was constructed to change eigen-decomposition and total least problems into real ones by unitary transformation. The simulation results showed that, being similar performance with 2-D ESPRIT algorithm, the performance of UC-PM is better than conventional PM algorithm with low SNR, and it has much lower calculation capacity than 2-D ESPRIT algorithm, which made the proposed algorithm of high practical value.