Hi Dr. Hartl et al.,

My apologies for the long delay in obtaining reviews of your MS, "Small scale spatial variability of bare-ice albedo at Jamtalferner, Austria". The pandemic slowed down my process of identifying suitable referees, but fortunately we now have two careful reviews of your MS from expert referees.

After examination of both their reviews and your response, I find both thoughtful and that your MS might be suitable for publication, but only after major revisions. Because of the scope of the issues raised regarding methodology and contextualization relative to previous studies raised by reviewer #2, it will be necessary for any revised MS to be further scrutinized by another (hopefully much faster) round of review.

I also have a couple of additional comments on the submitted MS:
- Are the 246 spectra collected 246 averages of multiple spectra ("stacked")? What is typical in ground-based albedo studies?
- A better description of the measurement protocol (identified by reviewer #2) is essential, along with context, i.e., comparison against accepted best practices for such measurements.

Thanks again for your submission to The Cryosphere,

Joe MacGregor (NASA/GSFC)

Dear Dr. Hartl et al.,

Thanks again for your submission to The Cryosphere. The MS is much improved and your response to the reviewers was thorough. Please address these minor issues prior to a final decision:

12: The change in this sentence in response to Reviewer #1 is imprecise. "further spatial and temporal variations in ice albedo increasingly accentuate the melt regime and recession occurs" is evocative but unclear. The following is more straightforward: "more dark, bare ice is exposed, decreasing local albedo and increasing surface melting." Because a link between surface melt and recession is not directly shown in this MS, I recommend setting aside the latter process.

23: "wish to" is unnecessary

Table 1 is an especially great addition. Thanks for presenting this history.

158, 161: An in review MS should not be cited.

189: "bare fibre optic" Is there a missing word here? Perhaps cable?

Figures 3/4: I suggest merging these two figures, labeling the photos P3/11, and outlining both their reflectance spectra and the photos with distinct colors.

Figure 8: What do the black diamonds signify? Add to legend.

Regards,

Joe MacGregor
NASA/GSFC

Dear Dr. Hartl et al.,

I've reviewed your revised version of the MS and consider it an excellent and novel contribution to the study of glacier ice albedo. I'm now happy to accept it for publication as is. Thanks again for submitting your work to The Cryosphere, your patience in its evaluation and diligence in revision.

Sincerely,

Joe MacGregor
NASA/GSFC