Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Review of paper:

Title: The approximate analytical solution for the top-of-atmosphere spectral reflectance of atmosphere – underlying snow system over Antarctica.

Submitted to: Special Issue: Advances in Remote Sensing of Terrestrial Atmosphere

The purpose of the current paper is to introduce an analytical relationship between clear sky top-of-atmosphere spectral reflectance. The suggest model is developed by considering the case of Antarctica, where both snow and atmosphere are almost free of pollutants. In summary, the author have focused its work on the simulation of the moderate spectral resolution measurements (1nm or so) and the spectral range 400-1000nm.

I find that the present manuscript is well written and organized but the author must introduced the following suggestions:

-          The Conclusion is too long.

-          The abbreviation TOA used in the Abstract must be defined before using. Either for R.

-          Some errors must be corrected (see for example the Abstract, …).

-          In the subsection 2.2, a figure must be added to show the definition of different used parameters.

-          The steeps used in Figs. 5 and 6 must be corrected (see the curves in the vicinity of minima and maxima).

-          The legend of the axis of Figure 10 must be corrected.

In summary, the results of the present paper are interesting and I recommend the work to be accepted for publication in your journal if the author introduced the above modifications.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1

Thank you very much for your comments. I have changed the Abstract as you have adviced. The Conclusions occupy just 0.5 page. So I do not reduce the corresponding section. I do not think that any figure is needed in Section 2.2. The steps in Figs. 5 and 6 are due to the spectral resolution of corresponding models. So I do not change them. I have chnaged the legend of Figure 10 as requested by you.

Reviewer 2 Report

Please check the attached file

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2

Thank you very much for your comments. I have changed the Abstract as you have adviced.  The decrease around 761nm is due to  light absorption by molecular oxygen. The corresponding comment has been added to the paper. Spelling and font types/ sizes and sentence on p.19 have been corrected as adviced by you.

Reviewer 3 Report

This work is focused on the simulation of TOA measurements at moderate spectral resolution (about 1 nm) and the spectral range 400-1000 nm
1) Better specify how the snow reflectance values were calculated.
2) Specify how the phase function and various single scattering albedo (SSA) values are calculated as a function of the solar zenith angle at the nadir of the observation.
3) If possible try to specify albedo values derived on particle size or shape, pr example assuming snow crystal shape.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 3

Thank you very much for your comments related to the snow reflectance specification. The text has been modified to account for your comments. Further details can be found in my Snow Optics (2021) book. The main point is that I assume the model of fractal snow grains in my calculations. The assumption on the snow shape influences the value of the effective absorption length, which is an input parameter for the model proposed.