Dear Authors,

All Reviewers are positive towards the merits of your study. My own evaluation very much echoes that of Reviewer #1, namely that your submission is well-crafted, yet does not entirely succeed in convincing the reader of the advantages of your approach over more conventional analyses. I am, however, confident that this is a shortcoming that may be overcome during revisions.
I am therefore returning the manuscript to you for minor revisions. If you feel that the timeframe for the revisions is too tight, you may have an extension of a few weeks by emailing the editorial office.

Best Regards,
Gabriele Messori

Dear Authors,

I have now evaluated your updated submission and your reply to the Reviewer comments. Concerning your query on the literature referred to by Reviewer #1 in their 2nd comment, I have contacted the Reviewer and received the following references:


Kang SM, Xie SP (2014) Dependence of climate response on meridional structure of external thermal forcing. J Clim 27:5593–5600

Woelfle MD, Bretherton CS, Frierson DMW (2015) Time scales of response to antisymmetric surface fluxes in an aquaplanet gcm. Geophys Res Lett 42(7):2555–2562. doi:10.1002/2015GL06337 2,2015GL063372

Adam, O., T. Schneider and B. Florent (2018) Regional and seasonal variations of the double-ITCZ bias in CMIP5 models. Climate Dyn., 51, 101–117, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3909-1.

I would encourage you to verify whether these may help to complement your reply and the textual edits you have implemented relative to it.

I would further suggest that you include the additional analyses you performed in reply to Reviewer #3's comment in an Appendix. The question of sensitivity to the chosen approach is an important one, which more than a reader may have. Since you have already performed this analysis, it would be much more satisfying for readers to be able to view the results as opposed to reading "not shown".

I trust that after these final edits your study may be suitable for publication in Earth System Dynamics.

Best Regards,
Gabriele Messori

Dear Authors,

I am very pleased to accept your manuscript for publication. I would also like to take this occasion to thank you for having chosen ESD as outlet for your research.

Best Regards,
Gabriele Messori