Operational phased array radar network for natural hazard monitoring and warnings in urban environments over the Greater Bay Area, China

Although conventional parabolic antenna-based S-band operational radars are valuable, they exhibit limitations such as low scanning speed and reduced information acquisition in the low atmosphere region, particularly at far ranges from the radar, leading to suboptimal observations of fast-evolving storms.

To address these limitations, a dense X-band polarimetric phased array radar (PAR) network, consisting of more than 50 radars, has been strategically constructed and deployed in the Greater Bay Area in South China, which is currently the largest PAR network worldwide. The PARs exhibit satisfactory performance in hydrometeor classification, hail identification, and quantitative precipitation estimation, demonstrating reliable polarimetric data quality.