Major Scientific Achievements of the First China–Japan Cooperative GAME/HUBEX Experiment: A Historical Review

In the summers of 1998 and 1999, Chinese and Japanese scientists cooperatively conducted the first large-scale energy and water cycle experiment(WCRP/GEWEX/GAME/HUBEX: World Climate Research Program/Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment/Asian Monsoon Experiment/Huaihe River Basin Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) in the Huaihe River basin, Anhui Province of China. The main objective of this field experiment(HUBEX)was to investigate the multiple-scale structure characteristics, life cycles, and genesis and development mechanisms of the Meiyu system in East Asia as well as the cause of related flooding disasters. It was a joint China-Japan cooperative meteorological and hydrological observation experiment. On the basis of intensive observations, scientists from the two countries conducted follow-up investigations through collating and compiling data and performing scientific analysis during the following five years. It can be concluded that the HUBEX project has yielded comprehensive and remarkable achievements. This paper introduces the major scientific results derived from this field experiment and the ensuing investigations, and reassesses their merits and shortages for the purpose of providing useful experience and proposing new research targets as well as prospects for the initiation of a new joint scientific Meiyu experiment in the middle and lower Yangtze River basin.