Dear Dr. Sergeant,

thank you very much for carefully addressing the constructive comments of the two reviewers, who were, in general, positive about your work and suggested its publication after moderate revisions. For example, both reviewers have pointed to the length of the paper, and my own reading of the original manuscript coincides very clearly with this comment. I understand that you are going to shorten some general explanations, and overall find your responses to reviewers' remarks convincing. Therefore, I would like to invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript for its further editorial considerations.

Taking into account the sheer volume of corrections, in case a need for more time arise, please do not hesitate to contact us (Copernicus Publications) and ask for an extension.

Best regards,
Evgeny Podolskiy

Dear Dr. Sergeant,

thank you for submitting a revised version of your paper, which I am pleased to accept for its publication in The Cryosphere.

As you prepare your final files, please, take into account my technical comments, which are marked directly in the .pdf of your manuscript (see attached; best viewed in freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader).

In particular, as you would see, I suggest to update your Figs. (1e, 7a, 8b, and B1), to break a lengthy section 5.2 into smaller sub-sections, to revisit Data Availability text for respecting the data policy of the journal, and, finally, to improve some parts of the text.

Best regards,
Evgeny Podolskiy