Dear authors,
I have reviewed the answers to the reviewer comments and find these generally well addressed. However, there are a few things I would like to suggest to include when preparing the final revised manuscript.

In several cases the discussion refers to the companion paper. I think it would be beneficial to make this reference as clear as possible, rather than just calling it Companion Part I paper.

Also in reply to the 1st reviewer on the use of ACC reference is made to Molteni, 2011 - perhaps this should also be done in the text. It is not clear from the response if this is the case.

I am not clear if you have made any changes to the manuscript in response to the general comment of the 2nd reviewer. While I agree this can be considered to be beyond the scope of the present paper, it may be useful to include the recommendation to further study in the discussion in the main manuscript.

I am sure you can include these small changes in preparing the revised manuscript.