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Abstract

The Mei-yu season, typically occurring from mid-June to mid-July, on average, contributes to 32% of the annual precipitation over the Yangtze–Huai River Valley (YHRV) and represents one of the three heavy-rainfall periods in China. Here, we briefly review the large-scale background, synoptic pattern, moisture transport, and cloud and precipitation characteristics of the Mei-yu frontal systems in the context of the ongoing Integrative Monsoon Frontal Rainfall Experiment (IMFRE) field campaign. Phase one of the campaign, IMFRE-I, was conducted from 10 June to 10 July 2018 in the middle reaches of the YHRV. Led by the Wuhan Institute of Heavy Rain (IHR) with primary support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, IMFRE-I maximizes the use of our observational capacity enabled by a suite of ground-based and remote sensing instruments, most notably the IHR Mesoscale Heavy Rainfall Observing System (MHROS), including different wavelengths of radars, microwave radiometers, and disdrometers. The KA350 (Shanxi King-Air) aircraft participating in the campaign is equipped with Ka-band cloud radar and different probes. The comprehensive datasets from both the MHROS and aircraft instruments are combined with available satellite observations and model simulations to answer the three scientific questions of IMFRE-I. Some highlights from a previously published special issue are included in this review, and we also briefly introduce the IMFRE-II field campaign, conducted during June–July 2020, where the focus was on the spatiotemporal evolutions of the mei-yu frontal systems over the middle and lower reaches of the YHRV.