Study of Atmospheric Turbidity in a Northern Tropical Region Using Models and Measurements of Global Solar Radiation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors assess atmospheric turbidity using models and observations at a site in Algeria. The literature review is limited but the methodology is clear. The results are presented and discussed well. My comments are as follows:

 

Minor:

1. Line 12: “which the”
2. The abstract should report error metrics related to the turbidity calculations.
3. Several figures in the plot do not have the correct aspect ratio. They appear stretched. These figures should be attached using the correct aspect ratio so that the labels also appear clearly.
4. Figure 3 can be plotted with kernel densities of all models in one figure so that the difference in each distribution is clearly captured.

 

Major:

1. The literature review could be expanded with all relevant studies conducted in the past calculating turbidity across several countries.
2. The study does not report any error metrics of derived turbidity. Also, the variation in bias metrics may reveal interesting patterns that are worth exploring.
3. The study only focuses on a single site. Will this approach work on other sites, especially those closer to the coast?

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Comments

Equations are not presented efficiently. In many cases the symbols which are used is not adequately described.

Meaning of “EKO” abbreviation is messing.

Lines 184-187: The meaning of this sentence is not clear. Describe in more detail and give information of how Δ(Temperature) and Δ (Humidity) were calculated.

Figure 8does not present what is described in caption.

Improve the quality of figure 9.

To my opinion, the comparison of the results obtained in this study with the findings of other research performed at Ghardaia has no meaning due to the great distance between the locations.

Add a map presenting the location of Tamanrasset in Algeria.

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

When comparing the log(τ_wa) to the Linke turbidity the log term consistently shows a faster drop off than the Linke turbidity as winter is approached. Is this correlated more with τ_a or τ_w.  This may have some baring on the authors desire to describe trends in their results to sand and dust from the Sahara. On a similar note, can the authors demonstrate why the AERONET β differs from the Linke derived β with more than conjecture?

I'm also very curious about the seasonal variation of the optical air mass at the studied location.  Is this parameter driving the Linke turbidity?

A definition of h in equation (1) should be added to line 63.  This quantity id defined for the next model but forces the reader to scan ahead for a definition.

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have sufficiently revised the manuscript. The only minor comment would be using decimal points rather than commas in Table 1. Please also ensure this is consistent in the manuscript to avoid confusion amongst readers. For example, 13.44 and 13,44 can be interpreted differently. Likewise, it is not ideal to express the correlation coefficient in percentages.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx