As part of the European Cloud and Radiation Experiment campaign, we conducted studies with the regional atmospheric modeling system in order to simulate stratocumulus clouds observed on April 18, 1994, over Brittany (France). This three-dimensional model was used in its non hydrostatic mode, with bulk microphysical and radiative transfer parameterizations. The first initialization employed data provided by the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and radiosoundings obtained at the Guipavas ground station. The model outputs were then compared with the corresponding NOAA-AVHRR (advanced very high resolution radiometer) satellite image and aircraft data collected in situ during the experiment. The relative differences between modeled and actual microphysical quantities (i.e., mixing ratio of water vapor, liquid water content, or liquid water path) were found to be less than 25% along the airplane trajectory; this disagreement was as large as 200% elsewhere in the experimental domain, principally because cloud cover was underestimated. The development of a simple time-to-space analysis made it possible to force the mesoscale model with satellite images combined with vertical profiles and tridimensional data of the ECMWF, leading to a more accurate spatial distribution of clouds over a large domain and diminishing these errors to 10%.