Manuscript prepared for Monthly Weather Review

A global TRMM database of tropical cloud system precipitation features (PFs), which provides useful observational constraints on cloud system properties, is used to evaluate the bulk microphysics schemes in a cloud-resolving model (CRM). The simulation of the Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) of 11-12 August 1999 during the Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX) is executed using the 3-D University of Utah CRM, which employs a one-moment bulk, three-ice category microphysical parameterization. The simulated precipitation features are compared with climatological "norms " for Kwajalein locations from the TRMM PF database to evaluate the precipitation microphysics of the cloud model simulation. The model simulated reflectivities are also compared with vertical profiles of radar reflectivity obtained from a ground-based precipitation radar. Comparison of simulation results with the TRMM observation statistics indicates that the model tends to underestimate microwave brightness temperatures at ice scattering frequencies and overestimate radar reflectivities, especially for those associated with larger ice particles. The differences between the statistics of KWAJEX simulation and available ground-based precipitation radar observations are relatively small at the levels below 5 km. Above 6 km, th