The fundamental relationships between acoustic array parameters and the noise field are reviewed to establish the connection among the various processing techniques for estimation of the ambient‐sea‐noise directionality. The analyses, based on the concept of multidimensional space, conclude that basic information about the ambient‐sea‐noise directionality can be obtained directly from the cross‐spectral matrix of the array’s hydrophone outputs. The angular resolution of the processed noise field depends on the array structure, the stationarity of the noise field, and the precision in numerical computation. The cross‐spectral data also can be used to indicate the dominant coherent noise sources in a certain multidimensional representation. Examples of a simulated noise field and actual sea data are illustrated for the directional AUTOBUOY.