Comparison of Simulated and Observed Continental Tropical Anvil Clouds and Their Radiative Heating Profiles

Vertically pointing millimeter-wavelength radar observations of anvil clouds extending from mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) that pass over an Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) field site in Niamey, Niger, are compared to anvil structures generated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model using six different microphysical schemes. The radar data provide the statistical distribution of the radar reflectivity values as a function of height and anvil thickness. These statistics are compared to the statistics of the modeled anvil cloud reflectivity at all altitudes. Requiring the model to be statistically accurate at all altitudes is a stringent test of the model performance. The typical vertical profile of radiative heating in the anvil clouds is computed from the radar observations. Variability of anvil structures from the different microphysical schemes provides an estimate of the inherent uncertainty in anvil radiative heating profiles. All schemes underestimate the optical thickness of thin anvils and cirrus, resulting in a bias of excessive net anvil heating in all of the simulations.