Dear authors,

Your revised manuscript and your response to their initial comments have now been evaluated by two referees. Although both found some improvements in the manuscript, they (and I concur with them) consider that your manuscript still need to be improved before it can be accepted for publication.

You will find their assessment below or attached

I also have myself some comments (attached).

To facilitate and speed up the review process, please attach to your revised manuscript a cover letter detailing the changes you have made in response to my comments.

Best regards,

Etienne Berthier

Dear authors,

Your revised manuscript and your response letter have now been evaluated by one referee. He considers that your manuscript still need to be improved before it can be accepted for publication in TC.

His review is attached.

To facilitate and speed up the review process, please attach to your revised manuscript a cover letter explaining the changes you have made in response to his comments.

Best regards,

Etienne Berthier

Xu et al.,
Revised version, April 2016

Dear Authors,
Thanks for the revision of your paper and for taking into account (or answering to) the reviewer’s comments.
I have thus the pleasure to accept your manuscript for publication in The Cryosphere AFTER a final series of technical corrections and clarifications are performed. At this stage, after so much work by the referees, I find it rather unfortunate that so much technical corrections are still needed. The abstract also needs some work. Some statements are rather weak, if not wrong.
I included my final editorial comments in a copy-annotated PDF of your manuscript. I ask you to send with your corrected manuscript a letter including ALL my comments and describing how you answered to them and modified the MS.
Thanks a lot for choosing The Cryosphere to publish your work,
Best regards,
Etienne Berthier