Dear Dr. Ross et al.,

Thanks for submitting your work to The Cryosphere, and my apologies for the delay in my decision. After review of your MS and the thoughtful referee comments, I consider it likely that the MS will be suitable for publication following revision. Both referees raise substantive issues with the attribution of the folding to rheology, so I encourage the authors to moderate the text carefully in this regard.

Separately, the supplementary figures are useful, but it is not clear to me – given a finite number of intersections – why the authors do not simply measure the peak reflectivity of the candidate anisotropic layer in both flight directions and then map that quantity. This is important because it is the best opportunity for quantitative assessment of the proposed origin of the layer presently available. In the supplementary figure caption, an important caveat is raised given aircraft altitude, but I find that unconvincing for several reasons:
- A geometric spreading correction for the aircraft altitude difference could easily be done. The difference in Fresnel zone due to altitude difference should be minor, or at least it shouldn't be significant enough to affect the anisotropic behavior of the layer.
- If the authors still find this altitude difference problematic, they could simply not include/interpret/show those flights where that altitude difference is considered significant.
- The flights are not always oriented along/across the present-day ice-flow direction. The absolute difference of the IMAFI grid's "+" intersections to ice-flow direction should also be considered as a confounding factor.

Thanks,
Joe MacGregor
NASA/GSFC

I thank the authors for their substantial efforts in revising their MS and addressing the reviewer's concerns carefully. The rewording in response to reviewer #1's concerns has made the potential formation mechanism clearer and you've also thoughtfully considered reviewer #2's points regarding anisotropy. I'm happy to accept this MS for The Cryosphere.

Cheers,

Joe MacGregor
NASA/GSFC