An extreme precipitation event over southern Baffin Island during the STAR campaign

The Storm Studies in the Arctic (STAR) is a four-year research Network (2007-2010) involving a wide range of activities on the part of researchers from five Canadian universities and Environment Canada. The project is concerned with the documentation, better understanding and improved prediction of meteorological and related hazards in the Canadian Arctic. As part of the project, a major meteorological field campaign took place from October 10 –November 30, 2007 and in February 2008 and was focused on southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. During the fall study period of the campaign, a major storm event occurred over the southern Baffin Island region from 16-19 November, 2007. This system was associated with the largest recorded amount of precipitation at Iqaluit Nunavut, as well as the lowest recorded pressures for the time period of the campaign. During the system's passage, two intense observation periods were done that entailed among other things, an increased frequency of radiosonde releases at Iqaluit and Pangnirtung airports, as well as two research aircraft flights. This talk will provide an overview of the structure of this system as revealed by the available in situ measurements. As well, we will discuss a comparison of the archived forecast model output to the measurements.