Recent studies like the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5, or CMIP5, have sought to quantify how atmospheric variables will change due to climate change. Even from decades of rigorous study, it is still uncertain how cloud feedbacks will respond to a warming climate. However, it is possible to try and minimize this uncertainty in part by examining deep convection, and specifically anvil clouds, in the Tropical Pacific. Anvil clouds are not simulated well by the current generation of climate models, but by studying both large scale motions and small scale, local cloud structural evolution, Professor Hartmann and I seek in this study to determine the underlying mechanisms of the differences in vertical cloud structure in the Eastern and Western Pacific. I use the ERA-Interim, CloudSat, Calipso, and CMIP5 datasets in addition to climate model output from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to analyze differences in cloud structure and model output. This is important work, because reducing uncertainty in an era of global warming can mean better advanced warning systems and more informed, ethical policy decisions moving forward.