Abstract:
To provide a scientific basis for an optimized quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) algorithm and operational application, this study evaluates the QPE product from a network of six X-band dual-polarization phased array radars (XPARs) in Wuhan, using rain gauge observations as ground truth. The assessment focuses on eight typical heavy-rainfall events from May to August 2025 and examines five key aspects: overall precipitation detection capability, sensitivity to rainfall intensity, differences across precipitation types, spatiotemporal distribution characteristics, and consistency between S-band and X-band radar observations. Results show that the QPE product effectively identifies surface precipitation, with an overall correlation coefficient, mean bias, relative mean bias, and root-mean-square error of 0.93, -0.24%, -6.0%, and 2.88 mm, respectively.The QPE product exhibits high accuracy and reliability for light-to-moderate rain, but performance degrades with increasing rain intensity, resulting in substantial errors and a systematic low bias during heavy precipitation events.Although stratiform precipitation is associated with smaller errors, convective and mixed types yield larger errors, particularly during rain storm.While the QPE product agrees with rain gauge observations in capturing the spatiotemporal evolution,its quantitative estimation performance exhibits spatial variability.Case comparisons reveal that the phased-array radar QPE provides finer spatial detail than the S-band radar in capturing the structure of localized heavy precipitation.This study demonstrates that the XPAR-network QPE product in Wuhan presents robust performance in depicting precipitation spatial patterns and tracking its temporal evolution, and exhibits significant application value in weather forecasting. However, it remains subject to systematic biases and spatial heterogeneities under varying rainfall intensities and in topographically blocked regions. This study provides an important basis for the application value of X-band phased array radar QPE products in meteorological forecasting operations.