Next Article in Journal
Innovative Decision Fusion for Accurate Crop/Vegetation Classification with Multiple Classifiers and Multisource Remote Sensing Data
Next Article in Special Issue
Global Wavenumber Spectra of Sea Surface Salinity in the Mesoscale Range Using Satellite Observations
Previous Article in Journal
Intermittency of Gravity Wave Potential Energy Generated by Mountains Revealed from COSMIC-2 Observations
Previous Article in Special Issue
Satellite-Derived Variability of Sea Surface Salinity and Geostrophic Currents off Western Patagonia
 
 
Article
Peer-Review Record

Salinity Fronts in the South Atlantic

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(9), 1578; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16091578
by Igor M. Belkin * and Xin-Tang Shen
Reviewer 1:
Reviewer 2: Anonymous
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(9), 1578; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16091578
Submission received: 17 March 2024 / Revised: 22 April 2024 / Accepted: 25 April 2024 / Published: 29 April 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Remote Sensing of Ocean Salinity)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please see attachment.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The language is fine and the main text is easy to read.

Author Response

Our Response to Review #1 is attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper is focused on structure and seasonal variability of sea surface salinity (SSS) in the Southern Atlantic with special emphasys on frontal zones. The authors analyze SMOS SSS measurements provided by the Barcelona Expert Center. This data is averaged during 2011-2019 and also the Belkin-O’Reilly algorithm is applied to study the frontal zones. Finally, the climatology of the main frontal zones in the study region are described including the open ocean and coastal (the Rio de la Plata plume, the Congo River plume, the Magellan Strait outflow, the Benguela upwelling).

The paper is very well designed and structured. It provides precise review of previous studies in the Introduction and decribes the climatology of the main frontal zones in the Results section. The obtained results mainly repeat those obtained in previous studies focused on specific regions (e.g., the Congo River plume, the Benguela upwelling), however, the research provides a nice generalization of all salinity fronts in the South Atlantic. As a result, the main weakness of the study consists in its descriptiveness, but the paper is too long already to be expanded.
Among specific comments, I recommend the authors to provide more justification that the diluted Congo River water spreads southward seasonally down to the Angola-Benguela Front at 16°S. This statement requires additional support from previous studies based on chemical or isotopic water properties, drifters, or numerical modelling. Finally, the authors use capital letter for "Plume" on pages 23-26, which should be changed to "plume".

In resume, the paper provides generalization of climatology of the main frontal zones in South Atlantic and its "review" style will be in demand by the scientific community. The paper could be published after minor revision.

Author Response

Our Response to Review #2 is attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The author has offered detailed responses to my concerns, and I am content with their efforts. Hence, I am delighted to endorse the publication of this article.

Back to TopTop