Dear authors,

thank you very much for your point-by-point author comments.
They do address the reviewer's concerns in an adequate way, which concludes the Discussion phase. We are now looking forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Please note that the further process for publication in TC depends on the editor’s evaluation of the revised manuscript and will involve a second review round.

Thank you very much again for sending your work to The Cryosphere,
kind regards,

Christian Hauck
Editor

Dear authors,

first of all my apologies for the long time it took for this decision/review, which was partly due to reviewer changes. As you can see, one reviewer is now content with your extensive scientific and editing changes made on the manuscript and the figures, but emphasizes that the text and the language have to be carefully revised before final submission.
I agree very much with this evaluation. In its present state, the paper is very repetitive and many parts can and should be shortened considerably.

I took the liberty to suggest language modifications and shortening of the text in the attached document. Please evaluate carefully, if you agree with them and if they do not modify the meaning of your statements. Before submission of your final manuscript, I would suggest that all co-authors are re-reading the text in order to find remaining errors/inconsistencies.

As these suggestions are many, but mostly concern the language and are focused on avoiding too many repetitions, they are nevertheless minor. Once modified, the paper will be acceptable for publication.

kind regards,
Christian Hauck
Editor

Dear authors,

thank you very much for your revised version - I am happy to be able to tell you that the paper can now be accepted for publication in The Cryosphere.

Thank you very much again for submitting your work to TC,
kind regards,
Christian Hauck
Editor