Dear Authors,

In view of the reviewer's assessment and my own evaluation of this paper, this work constitutes a valuable contribution to our research community. The reviewers have raised a number of minor issues that need to be addressed in the revised manuscript. The author’s responses to these comments are very positive, and they show that they will constructively address many of the issues raised by the reviewers. The number of revisions is not large so I am recommending minor revisions in line with the reviewer’s suggestions.

Please address all comments, including the first two comments by reviewer 1 : a) work with GLDAS which is a useful reference for the scientific community, b) The explanation of simulation of melting front propagation in SIBCASA. In addition, please include the responses to the major comment by reviewer 2 (page 1 and 2 of your response) and Figures AC2a, AC2b, AC3, AC4 with the corresponding discussion answering the reviewers comments as supplementary information (i.e. a supplementary pdf file) that can be referred to in the paper. This additional information will be a useful addition to the manuscript, and while keeping the paper concise will be available to the readers. Please note that though the reviewer’s comments and author’s responses will be available online, researchers interested in the paper often download only the final article.

I look forwards to receiving the revised manuscript.

Best Regards,
Patricia Saco

Dear authors,

Thank you for incorporating all the suggested changes and carefully addressing the reviewers concerns.
I believe that the revised manuscript is now ready for publication.

Regards,
Patricia Saco