Dear Dr. Elshamy,

Thank you very much for the response to the reviewers. I have read through the documents and believe at this time you can work to submit a revised manuscript. Both reviewers note the important contributions this manuscript makes. In terms of revisions, both reviewers asked that the methodology section was excessive in length and parts should be moved to supplementary material. In addition, you mention additional work that is required to explain the results at the JMR site that will need to be addressed. Finally, there remains a discrepancy between SDEP and active layer depths that will need to be cleared up. At this time, I would ask that you submit a revised manuscript for review.

Best regards,

Sean Carey
McMaster University

Dear Dr. Elshamy,

I would like to thank you for the careful revisions to this manuscript. The issue of permafrost representation in land surface models is vexing, and this work provides much needed additional guidance, particularly with regards to spin-up and soil profile representation. While I believe that the manuscript is now suitable for publication in the HESS special issue, some figures will need to be improved for publication due to their small font sizes. I would suggest that almost all figures from 5 to 17 be carefully inspected and improved where possible.

Sean Carey
McMaster University