The reviewers have raised a number of concerns that the authors need to address. The authors' responses to the reviewer comments are appropriate, and I look forward to the revised manuscript. One of the most important comments is that the authors need to stress the novelty of the present study. What has been learned that was not learned in previous work? Some of these comments appear to stem from the introduction of the paper. If the introduction focuses on atmospheric rivers, then a reader would expect to learn something new about atmospheric rivers. If the introduction focuses on the methodology with atmospheric rivers as an illustration, that is a different paper. Please be sure your discussion accurately reflects what you are attempting to do with this manuscript.

The authors have satisfied all of the reviewers' requirements, and I am happy to accept this manuscript for publication.