Dear Dr. Raisanen:

In view of the referee comments and my own reading of the manuscript, my decision is to accept this manuscript for publication in The Cryosphere.

Although both referees questioned numerous aspects of the original version of the paper, and especially reviewer #2, you have made significant changes to the paper that have addressed most of these earlier concerns or have outlined your reasons for not addressing some of these points. With these changes, the paper is ready for publication.

Thanks for your efforts to address these concerns, and to make appropriate changes as appropriate.

Sincerely,

Philip Marsh