During the Canadian phase of the FIRE-III field project (6 April-1 May 1998), a special modeling system has been set up in Inuvik, NWT, to provide specific forecasting guidance for the Convair aircraft flight operations. The MC2 (Mesoscale Compressible Community) model was run at high-resolution (10 km) everyday to give an accurate picture of mesoscale features, especially with regards to the Arctic cloud structure and distributions, near-surface winds and temperatures. The model domain covered the areas of interest, including Barrow (the ARM site) and the SHEBA ice breaker site. Special effort was put in the model physics package to provide a detailed representation of the processes most relevant to the weather in the Arctic, in particular the surface processes both over the ice-covered ocean and the continent, the boundary layer, and the Arctic stratus clouds.
An overview of the various aspects of the modeling system will be presented at the Conference. Comparisons between model forecasts and aircraft observations will also be shown, together with a few cases to illustrate some interesting mesoscale features noticed during the experiment.