1. Scientific goals and strategy
The scientific goals of GAME are 1) to understand the role of Asian monsoon in the global energy and water cycle, and 2) to improve the simulation and seasonal prediction of seasonal precipitation and water cycles of the regional-scales in the Asian monsoon region.

The scientific strategy of GAME to achieve these two scientific goals consists of three components; 1)monitoring by satellites and in-situ surface observations, 2) process studies based on the four regional experiments (Tropics, Sub-tropics, Tibetan Plateau and Siberia), and 3) modeling of hydro-meteorological processes in the climate system. Particularly, GAME focuses on the regional as well as continental-scale energy and water cycle processes and land/atmosphere interactions in the diurnal to seasonal cycles of Asian monsoon system.

The data sets obtained through the activity and implementation of GAME should be utilized and shared by the scientific communities and the meteorological and hydrological operational agencies of the world under the general agreement of WMO/WCRP framework, through the GAME Archive and Information Network (GAIN). Current status of some important components of GAME are summarized here.

2. Current status of implementation
GAME-International Science Panel has been established, and the terms of references have been decided at the first session of the GISP in March '96 held at NASDA/EORC. The ten countries (Japan, China, Thailand, Russia, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong and USA/GCIP) . In this meeting, the plan of GAME/SCSMEX joint IOP was intensively discussed.

To coordinate the international activity of GAME and to manage the office for GISP, the Institute of Hydrospheric and Atmospheric Sciences (IHAS) of Nagoya University has established GAME International Project Office (Prof. Kenji Nakamura, director). Currently, one position for foreign visiting scientist at GAME-IPO has been announced for the international GAME community.

The first GAME Implementation Plan (draft) was reviewed at the 1st GAME-ISP meeting in March 1996, and will be completed and approved, including the contents of the IOP in 1998, at the second ISP meeting to be held in late March, 1997 in Cheju Island, Korea.

For further information on GAME, GAME International home page has been opened as follows: http://www.ihas.nagoya-u.ac.jp/game/index.html

3. Asian AWS Network (AAN) and Radiation Network
3-1. AAN
the objective of AAN is to monitor seasonal cycle and interannual variation of surface radiation and energy balance at typical climatological and land surface conditions over monsoon Asia. In the phase I (1996-2000), about 10 Automated Weather Stations (AWS) with surface flux components are planned to be deployed in the Arctic Tundra, Siberian Taiga, Mongolian grassland, Huai-he river basin, Tibetan Plateau, Paddy field and tropical rainforest of Thailand, as a meridional transect line in the monsoon Asia. One type of AWSs is PAM-III Flux (Horst and Oncley, 1995), which has been developed with the cooperation of NCAR, USA.

The field test of one proto-type PAM-III for GAME was successfully implemented in the humid tropics (Thailand) in 1996 summer. It was also found through this field test that changes in the energy stored in water body in a paddy field were found to be a large portion in the energy balance in the humid tropical monsoon region. The field test in cold climate condition is being tested in Sapporo, Hokkaido in 1996/97 winter, including the indoor test in the low-temperature chamber with -40 degree C. The field test for real-time data by GMS satellite will also be implemented in spring of 1997. After these field tests, some modification and improvement of the system will be made, and 3 or 4 improved systems will be deployed in 1997 summer. Another similar system is also being designed and developed for severe cold regions in Siberia. One proto-type system of this type will be installed at Tiksi, Arctic tundra.

The national workshop of surface flux measurements in GAME was held on October 18-19, 1996 in Tsukuba. Some 30 scientists and engineers participated in this workshop to discuss the methods of mainly flux evaluations at the surface. It was proposed that the general guideline of the measurement/analysis procedures should be shared among all the groups in the GAME communities. The international workshop of GAME-AAN will be held during the GAME study conference to be held in March at Cheju island.

3-2. Radiation Network
The GAME surface radiation monitoring sites are being deployed by the GAME radiation group led by Prof. T. Nakajima of CCSR, Univ. of Tokyo. The measurement system for the GAME high-accuracy radiation site have been decided, consisting of two pyranometers, full automatic pyrheliometers, two pyrgeometers, sky radiometer for aerosol optical properties and one lidar system (Hayasaka and Kikuchi, 1996).

Three GAME radiation sites based on the BSRN standard will be maintained from 1997 to 2001. One site in Thailand (Si Samron agrometeorological station; 16.9N, 99.8E) has been decided in collaboration with GAME-Tropics. Another site in China (Shou-Sian met. observatory, 32.6N, 116.8E) has been selected in collaboration with Chinese GEWEX radiation sub-committee led by Prof. Shi Guang-Yu of NCC, CMA. This site is one of the HUBEX station. In addition, this collaborated group will also coordinate with Chinese BSRN site in Tibetan Plateau (Wudaoliang) and WMO/GAW site at Waliguan.

In addition to the in-situ surface observations, satellite remote sensing studies are concurrently underway, to retrieve radiation components over GAME area as follows:

1. surface shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes based on GMS radiances for every 1 x 1 degree box.
2. Cloud microphysical parameters based on AVHRR, SSM/I and SSM/T2 data.
3. Aerosol optical properties based on AVHRR, OCTS and TOMS data.

These retrieved data will be compared and validated with ground-based data obtained by the GAME radiation network and radiation archive.

4. Regional process studies
Intensive process studies on the regional or large basin-scale energy and water cycle have been started in the four areas (GAME-Tropics, -HUBEX, -Tibet and -Siberia), covering the humid tropics (Chao Praya river basin, tropical rainforest in Malaysia and Sri Lanka), the humid subtropics and temperate region of Huaihe river in China, Tibetan Plateau, and Siberian Tundra and Taiga (Lena river basin), respectively. In these regions, about 10 PBL towers are to be installed for intensive surface and near-surface energy and water fluxes. The AWS network will also support this regional process studies.

These process studies will be conducted at least two years to obtain the full seasonal cycle of the energy and water cycle processes of the four areas. The data obtained are to be used to develop and improve the Big-Leaf type one-dimensional SVATS models. In each region, meso-scale budget study area(s) and regional or river-basin scale budget study area are defined.

The target years are 1997 through 1999, with the main observing year of 1998 for the four areas (Tropics, HUBEX, Tibet and Siberia), and 1999 for Siberia. The recent progress of each regional studies are reported in the followings:

4-1. GAME-Tropics
The MOU between Thai national sub-committee for GAME-T, chaired by Dr. Suvit Vibulshresth of NRCT and Japan National committee for GAME was signed in March 1996. Under this MOU,the implementation of GAME-T in Thailand has started from April, 1996.

The four surface flux stations are planned within Thailand, and field test of flux AWS were made in the rice paddy field in the central Thailand, cooperatively with the AAN group. It was found that the role of water body in the paddy field is essential for determining the diurnal cycle of the surface heat and CO2 fluxes. The PBL tower observation and hydrological observation in the monsoon forest in northern Thai has been started in summer of 1996. A preliminary field campaign on space distribution of evapotranspiration in various vegetation was made in central Thailand.

Preliminary campaign of enhanced radiosonde observation with 8 times per day were made for 2 weeks in central Thailand, to examine the diurnal cycle of PBL and verticl structure of the troposphere associated with that of cumulus convection and precipitation.

Preliminary campaign of enhanced radiosonde observation with 8 times per day were made for 2 weeks in central Thailand, to examine the diurnal cycle of PBL and verticl structure of the troposphere associated with that of cumulus convection and precipitation. Data archive program for operational meteorological and hydrological data have been started cooperatively with Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) and Royal Irrigation Department (RID).

4-2. GAME-Subtropics (HUBEX)
In China, National Natural Science Foundation (NSF) of China has decided to support Chinese-HUBEX. HUBEX project office was established at National Climate Center (NCC), Beijing. HUBEX data center was also established at NCC and sub-center will be established at IHAS, Nagoya Univ., Japan. All data will be basically opened to GEWEX group, although the policy and procedure of data distribution have not been determined yet. The headquarter of HUBEX-IFO (Intensive Field Observation) will be set at Beijing. The headquarter will be managed by several Chinese scientists and a few Japanese and Korean scientists.

Joint steering meeting for KORMEX (Korean Monsoon Experiment) and HUBEX was held at Seoul, Korea, on 21-22 Oct., 1996. The purpose of KORMEX is to improve monitoring and predictability of Changma (Mei-u in Korea) and heavy rainfall together with regional water cycle. The implementation plan of KORMEX was mainly prepared by Met. Res. Inst. of Korea. The KORMEX-IOP will be made from April to September in 1998. In addition to optimize Changma monitoring system, radio-sonde observation will be made every 3 hours. The collaboration between KORMEX and HUBEX will be discussed in detail at the 2nd meeting of the GAME-ISP held in Cheju Island, Korea, on 24-25 March, 1997.

The meeting on GAME/HUBEX collaboration between China and Japan was held at Beijing, China, on 27-28 Oct., 1996, where the following issues were discussed in detail.

1. Observational requirements for GAME/IOP and HUBEX-IFOs.
2. Products of GAME/HUBEX.
3. Observational data requirements for the data-base of GAME/HUBEX.
4. Archive of historical meteorological and hydrological data.
5. Management of HUBEX project office, and HUBEX-IFO headquarters
6. HUBEX data center and data management policy

4-3. GAME/Tibet
1. Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meetings was held two times for coordination of three projects, GAME-Tibet, Chinese TIPEX and PRC-Japan Cooperation of Asian Monsoon Mechanisms.

• 1st JCC meeting in Beijing from June 10 to 12, 1996.
• 2nd JCC meeting in Kyoto from December 7 to 8, 1996.

At the 2nd meeting, the following items were agreed;

1. Intensive field observations at two different scales, the plateau-scale and the meso-scale in the central plateau near Naqu-Ando area will be implemented in full-cooperation among the three projects.
2. Data exchange issue and custom clearance problem particularly for NASDA doppler radar should be soloved not only by further efforts of the three projects but also through the supports and endorsement of the international bodies sucha as WMO/WCRP.
3. The following two science plans were proposed from out of JCC
   • Modeling, remote sensing and diagnostic study by the US group
   • Aerosonde experiment by the Australia group
   These proposal should be considered as part of the international cooperation related to GAME/Tibet and TIPEX. The representatives from these groups should be invited to the JCC as scientific experts to these projects.
4. JCC decided the counterpart institutions and the focal points of the following cooperative activities: aerosonde experiment, data management and modeling.

2. The reconnaissance was carried out one times in the west part of the plateau on July and two times in the east along the north-south network line on August and September for selection of observational sites and fix the installation schedule.

3. Some scientific achievements are as follows:

• The diurnal cycle of wind and heat transfer at the meso-scale and the plateau-scale were well simulated by regional atmospheric model (Kimura et al., 1996).
• Heat and moisture transfer scheme has been developed, which works well in permafrost land surface (Ishidaira et al., 1996).
• Data sets of surface wetness and snow derived from SSM/I have been produced (Koike et al., 1996).
• Seasonal and diurnal atmospheric water vapor content are being processed based on GMS-5 water vapor channel radiances. (Yatagai and Yasunari, 1996).

4-4. GAME-Siberia
GAME-Siberia has been started based principally on Japan-Russia cooperative research framework. Funding in Russia and other countries are now being applied.

The first three years will be mainly focused on the following topics.

1. Land surface water/energy exchange at three local sites within Lena River basin of different land cover conditions.
2. Diagnostic study of local and regional water/energy based on hydro-meteorological and aerological data of permanent stations.
3. Modelling of permafrost-snowcover-vegetation interactions

The following progress has been made in 1995-1996.

1. Cooperation with Japan and Russian Scientists Group for implementation: MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) has been signed in April, 1996 by Japan National GAME Committee (Chair: T. Yasunari) and Russia GAME Committee (Chair: V. Kotlyakov) to start the bilateral component of the project.
2. Field campaigns
   11 Japanese, 4 Russians were engaged in the field observations. In order to start the observational study, firstly, 30m PBL tower and preliminary instruments were set at pine/larix forest Spasskaya Pait (Near Yakutsk) at end of August. Soil sampling, measurement of soil moisture and active layer etc. were made at this study area. Secondly, 4m measurement mast was build on tundra outside of Tiksi, during the same period.
3. Data sets
   Meteorological data sets and hydrological data sets are being prepared in cooperation with GAME-Japan and State Hydrological Institute, St. Petersburg and World Data Center, Obninsk.
4. International cooperation
   Scientists specialized in tundra hydrology from University of Alaska will join the field observations for the coming few years.

• In Taiga region near Yakutsk, continuous measurements of water/energy exchange by PBL tower and subsurface measurements will be made. Periodical measurements of aerial energy and hydrological components. Intensive measurements will be made during snowmelt period, summer, freezing period.
• In Tundra region near Tiksi, continuous measurement of water/energy related components will be made by AWS, discharge gauges over the drainage. Intensive measurements will be made during snowmelt period, summer, freezing period.
• Preliminary survey will be made in Southern mountain Taiga region near Irkutsk.
• The 2nd International Workshop on "Water/energy cycle in Siberia and GAME" is planned after the summer field campaign.
• Compilation of hydrological and meteorological data in the Lena River basin and vicinity will be continued.

5. the Intensive Observing Period (IOP)
The Intensive Observing Period (IOP) is planned in 1998, to obtain the highly-resolved energy processes and water cycles in the Asian monsoon system. The full-utilization of TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) is required for the IOP, combined with the enhanced upper-air soundings and surface-based observations.

The full international cooperation for IOP was discussed at the first session meeting of GISP at NASDA/EORC in March 1996, particularly for the enhanced radiosonde observations and special data archive of the routine-based meteorological and hydrological observations of the countries concerned, held. In this meeting the coordination with other GAME-related international, particularly with SCSMEX (South China Sea Monsoon Experiment) was discussed, of which the IOP are also planned in summer monsoon season of 1998. The agreement was met to have a unified IOP from May through July with enhanced radiosonde observation with 4 times per day (every 6 hours), at more than 70 stations in these two projects. Further details will be discussed at the ad-hoc committee for GAME/SCSMEX joint IOP, co-chaired by T. Yasunari (GAME) and K.M. Lau (SCSMEX).

In addition to these stations involved in GAME (HUBEX, Tropics, Tibet), TIPEX, and SCSMEX, 16 upper air stations in China, located between HUBEX and TIPEX region, are going to be involved in the IOP, as part of China-Japan cooperative study on monsoon research.

Korea will implement the enhanced radiosonde observations during IOP, as part of KORMEX enhanced observation. The meso-scale meteorological research group of Meteorological Research Institute (MRI), Tsukuba, is going to cooperate with this IOP, by deploying the enhanced radiosonde and and radar observations in south-western part of Japan and East China Sea.

In November 1996, India Meteorological Department (IMD) agreed to implement the enhanced radiosonde observations of 12 stations in Northern India and Port Blair, Andaman Islands, during the IOP. National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, India is planning to deploy the research vessel observation in the Bay of Bengal, with the radiosonde observation during the IOP. The meteorological departments of Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar are also considering the cooperation for the enhanced radiosonde observations, provided that some necessary support for equipments, expendables etc. are made. The number of radiosonde stations to be involved is summarized in the Appendix.

To implement this unified IOP with the enhanced radiosonde observations of more than 110 stations of 13 countries, further financial support and endorsement from WMO/WCRP and are urgently required, particularly for some national meteorological agencies.

The surface hydro-meteorological observations will focus on the role of land-surface hydrological processes, including snow cover/permafrost, soil moisture and vegetation on the seasonal evolution from winter/spring to the mature phase of monsoon and summer condition. The one-full-year archive of these data from 1998 spring is also an essential task for this IOP.

6. 4DDA and modeling studies
The global 4DDA with the renewed T213L30 NWP model with simple SIB has operationally been started at JMA since March 1996, with horizontal grid-size of about 55 km. The re-analysis of GAME/SCSMEX IOP phase, in conjunction with TRMM validation program, will be implemented by this 4DDA system at JMA.

The GCM group in Japan (led by Prof. Akimasa Sumi) has started to estimate continental-scale water recycling and transport processes (Numaguti, 1996), which will cooperate with the observational studies on transport and recycling processes of water substances based on stable isotope hydro-meteorology and chemistry.

The regional modeling group has been set up (chaired by Prof. Fujio Kimura, Univ. of Tsukuba). This group is preparing GAME Community Regional Models particularly for the modeling of the four regional study areas (i.e., tropics, sub-tropics, Tibetan Plateau and Siberia). The models used for GAME regional modeling will be, a simple atmospheric model developed by Prof. Kimura , JSM model (1988 version) developed by JMA and RAMS model supplied from CSU.

The regionally-nested modeling of energy and water cycle processes with grid size of 10-30 km are being tested for Huai-he river basin (HUBEX) and Tibetan Plateau (GAME-Tibet) by the university group of Japan (Nagoya, Tokyo, Tsukuba, and Kyoto), in cooperation with JMA/MRI group. HUBEX modelling group is planning cloud-system modelling with ARPS (developed by Oklahoma Univ.). The nested 4DDA for Chao-Praya river basin (GAME-Tropics) is being prepared by Kyoto University group based on RAMS model. The nested 4DDA for Lena river basin (GAME-Siberia) is being planned by the university groups in Japan and Russia (Moscow University).

7. Data management and GAIN
The basic concept, framework and guidelines for data management and GAIN has been proposed, and GAIN Initial System is being set up at MRI/JMA (Murakami, 1995). Although some serious political as well as technical problems are to be solved, GAIN will be expected to function as a new system for the meteorological and hydrological data archive, information and exchange, particularly among the Asian countries. The outline of GAIN-Hub and GAIN-DAAC are being planned, and MRI/JMA has tentatively opened GAIN-Hub function. These issues are to be discussed at the first GISP meeting in Tokyo.

8. Links with international programs and projects
CLIVAR/GOALS
In the workshop for SCSMEX (June, 1995, Beijing; May, 1996, Taipei), the coordination between GAME and SCSMEX and other related projects was discussed, particularly for their common IOP (1998 spring to summer) and common scientific objectives. In the first CLIVAR monsoon panel meeting held in Goa, India in November 1996, GAME has been endorsed as a GEWEX-side counterpart project for the CLIVAR/GOALS monsoon study program. As part of CLIVAR/GEWEX cooperation in this connection, enhance atmospheric and oceanographic observation over the Indian Ocean, particularly over the Bay of Bengal, has been recommended in conjunction with the GAME/SCSMEX IOP in 1998. Further discussion will be made at the second session of GISP to be held in March 1997 at Cheju island, Korea.

ACSYS
GAME-Siberia has a potential to contribute to some aspect of ACSYS, particularly to the issue of fresh water supply to the Arctic. The commitment of Russian GAME community will be important for further cooperation with ACSYS. At GEWEX Hydromet. Panel (GHP) meeting held on August 26-29, 1996 in Toronto, Canada, GAME/Siberia, MAGS and BALTEX were recommended to strengthen the hydrological modelling and observation to cooperate ACSYS hydrological modelling.

IGBP
At the international IGBP/BAHC/LUCC meeting held in November 1996 in Kyoto, a renewed intensive discussion were made on the cooperation between GAME, particularly GAME Siberia and IGBP/BAHC (lead by Dr. Pavel Kabat, chairman of BAHC), which aims to study and monitor the biogeochemical and hydrological processes over Siberia. The necessity of close cooperation has been agreed by the two groups.

APN (Asian-Pacific Network for Global Change Research) and START
At the Science Planning Committee meeting of APN held in March 1996 in Kuala Lumpur, GAME has been endorsed as one of the major research activities on monsoon research under the APN framework, and was decided for limited support particularly for GAME/AAN. The substantial support has been started from April, 1996.

9. Time table of related activities

1997, March 24-25:

The second session of GAME-ISP. Cheju island, Korea.

1997, March 26-28:

The 3rd International Conference on GEWEX in Asia and GAME. At KAL Hotel, Cheju island, Korea

1997, September 9-12 (tentative):

The 3rd session of GHP meeting, at Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo, Japan (hosted by GAME)

ISSUES
Some major issues to be solved in the near future may be as follows;

1. Further funding is required, particularly for intensive field campaigns of each regional experiment in 1997 to 1999, centered at IOP of 1998. For developing countries in GAME area, some strong endorsement and support of WMO/WCRP will required for GAME-IOP.
2. Regional modeling activity has been set up, including the cooperation with JMA regional modeling group. However, the coordination between macro-scale hydrological modelling group and meso-scale atmospheric. modelling group should further be strengthened. Involvement of modeling groups in the Asian and Russian countries are also essential for long-term collaboration of GAME.
3. Development of AWS for long-term monitoring (not for meso-scale weather phenomena) of surface heat and moisture fluxes under AAN, needs international cooperation for deployment and maintenance of the monitoring network (particularly with IGBP and GCOS communities.) In this respect, the support by APN needs to be strengthened.
4. Further discussion and negotiation are continuously required for achieving the inter-governmental consensus and agreement for data collection and archive for world-wide use of meteorological and hydrological data of this region.

RECENT PROGRESS AND FUNDING IN JAPAN:
Based on the recommendation of the geodesy council issued in June 1995, national funding for GAME has been started by the governmental agencies and funding organizations concerned.

A basic funding for university community of GAME has been decided by Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (MESSC) covering 5 years (1996-2000 FY). MESSC has also approved to offer the special research aid for GAME-related satellite data analysis and modeling for 3 years (1996-1998 FY).

The Science and Technology Agency (STA) are funding for the researches of the national institutes related to GAME (Tibet, Tropics, HUBEX etc.). STA is also establishing a long-term project-oriented new institution named Earth-Frontier Program (managed by JAMSTEC/NASDA jointly) starting from FY1997, which will support and cooperate with the international GAME activity through one of the core project titled " The prediction of water cycle and water resources in Asia".

NASDA is supporting GAME and GEWEX-related research in Japan, by providing fund for satellite-oriented research, i.e., ground truth measurements, validation of algorithms for JERS-1, TRMM, and ADEOS series, etc., in monsoon Asia, and by managing GEWEX national office, which will play a role of national as well as international node of GEWEX activity in Asian region. Within this fiscal year of 1996, NASDA/EORC will issue the Research Announcement (RA) for GEWEX/GAME for the international science community.

The Science Planning Committee of the APN (Asian-Pacific Network for Global Change Research) has endorsed GAME as one of the important programs related to ENSO/monsoon problems. The national APN office has started substantial support for GAME/AAN from 1996 FY.#

Appendix:
Number of upper-air stations involved in the enhanced radiosonde observations during the GAME/SCSMEX IOP (May to July, 1998)