Comparisons of simulated and observed mesoscale systems over the Indian Ocean during DYNAMO/AMIE

Anvil clouds associated with mesoscale convective systems cover a large area of the tropics and may persist for several hours to days at a time. The radiative impacts of such clouds in the upper troposphere has significant effects on the general circulation in the tropics and underscores the importance of properly simulating the structure of anvil clouds and their parent mesoscale systems. We use six different microphysical schemes in the Weather Research and Forecast model (WRF), and examine the structure of precipitating and non-precipitating clouds produced by each within a domain of 1 km resolution centered near Addu City, Maldives. Model results are validated using radar data from the DOE-ARM Ka-band Zenith Pointing cloud radar (KAZR) and the polarimetric S-band radar on the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) S-PolKa platform.