Dear Authors,

I would like to thank you for carefully addressing the comments by the two referees, and proposing how the manuscript will be amended in response to those comments. I would like to ask you to upload the revised manuscript. I would then like to briefly review this myself to ensure the comments have and revisions have been well incorporated prior to recommending the manuscript to go to the next stage in the process,

Kind regards,

Dear Authors, thank you for processing the proposed changes to the manuscript. I do believe that these changes, reflecting the suggestions made by the reviewers, have contributed to improving the manuscript. I think this contribution, which lies perhaps a little at the periphery of the scope of manuscripts in HESS will most certainly be of interest to the readers of HESS in interpreting satellite based observations of lake and reservoir levels, and their potential in supporting water balance assessments. It is also an interesting prospective of the SWOT mission, once launched.

There are some minor grammatical inconsistencies such as word order in selected places, but I am sure these will be ironed out during copy-editing. I would, however, recommend you pay careful attention when reviewing the proofs.

Regards
Micha Werner