Dear Authors,

Thank you for your detailed response to the reviewers comments. Given the extensive changes recommended, your revised version will be sent out for a second review and possible publication in The Cryosphere.

Best regards,

Florent Domine, Editor

Dear Authors,

I thank you for the extensive and constructive revisions of your manuscript. The revised version has been evaluated by 2 of the initial reviewers. Reviewer 2 recommends major revisions. This Reviewer's comments are interesting and constructive, however I find that, while improvements are always possible, the degree of additional detail required by Reviewer 2 is sometimes not fully warranted. I agree with the reviewer that you could use a number of AI approaches but my view is that you have to prove that you approach is useful and a reasonable choice. Of course, for some aspects, other methods might be possible and better suited. I feel it is important that you justify your choice as a reasonable compromise, but I will not request that you examine the performance of all possible approaches.

In summary, I am asking you to address in a reasonable manner the comments of both reviewers, but I do not think major changes are necessary. I will evaluate your final revisions and responses without a third round of reviews. Pending satisfactory and concise responses and revisions, I anticipate that your paper will be accepted for publication in The Cryosphere after these last revisions.

Best of luck with your final writing,

Florent Domine

Dear Authors,

I thank you for the final revision of your paper. I find that you have responded satisfactorily to the reviewers’ remarks and am ready to accept your paper for publication. However, the data you use must be freely and readily accessible. This is a requirement of our journal. Our website clearly states that all data used in papers must be accessible to other researchers.

https://www.the-cryosphere.net/about/data_policy.html

In your “Data availability" section, you state that “The in situ measurements provided by the China Meteorology Administration (CMA) and Chinese Snow Survey (CSS) project are not available to the public due to legal constraints.” I am sorry, but this is not acceptable for a scientific publication, which requires openness. Subsequently, that section of your paper mentions “The daily snow depth product was obtained from the Environmental and Ecological Science Data Center for West China (http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn)” . I visited that website a few days ago and downloaded a data filed which, unzipped, contained HDF files totalling 71 Gbytes. Is that the snow depth data? In any case, that site was not available today anymore.

Data availability is now, as far as I know, a mandatory requirement for all scientific journals. Preferably, your data should be deposited in a data repository and be assigned a DOI. As soon as you address this issue, I will be happy to formally accept your paper.

Best regards,

Florent Domine

Dear Authors,

Thank you for your revised version, which I am pleased to accept for publication in The Cryosphere, congratulations!

I am taking this opportunity to stress the need for easy data sharing in science. I am fully aware that you, as scientists, have no responsibility for the way Chinese data is made available to the international public. However, two of the websites you indicate are in Chinese, which as you know is of little use for most people outside China. Making meteorological data readily available, without having to make a request, is also a valuable asset which greatly facilitates data use. If you ever get a chance to discuss these issues with your administration, please do. Every nation has to do its share of data sharing for efficient scientific progress, especially in environmental sciences. This is of course for the benefit of science, but, in a larger perspective, for the benefit of Mankind’s fragile future. One-way data sharing is not sustainable.

In any case, your paper is a valuable contribution, we thank you for submitting your work to The Cryosphere and look forward to receiving further submissions from your group.

Best regards,

Florent Domine