On Wednesday, a frontal system was approaching Inuvik and the Beaufort Sea from the west. In the north-east an area with very low clouds probably fog touching the surface was forecasted and visible in the satellite images. This cloud field was predicted to disintegrate during the days. From the west a second band with low level clouds was approaching. These clouds where expected to be higher but overcast by cirrus. The flight plan intended to sample both cloud layers.
When arriving at the airport, we were surprised how less 15 km driving can be. In town the weather was clear but at the airport fog was all over the place. Both aircraft were covered with a layer of hoar frost which produced a couple of nice photograph scenes. Later, we could also see by eye some small ice crystals falling out of the fog, what was pretty nice to observe. When all instruments did run on ground power our PMS probes even could do some measurements of the fog and the ice crystals without flying.
After the fog was gone, we finally could start for the flight. Unfortunately at the first destination, where the leg for cloud sampling was to begin, from Polar 5 no clouds could be seen in the vicinity. Polar 6 only cached some low clouds or even fog. Because it was not worth to fly and search for any cloud band behind the horizon, the fight was stopped and both aircraft went back to Inuvik, with Polar 6 flying some horizontal legs in different altitudes for the trace gas measurements. When the highest level was reached, both aircraft could see each other, so many pictures were made.
For details read here: http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~racepac/flights/flight_03.html
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