Potential of the Bi-Static SAR Satellite Companion Mission Harmony for Land-Ice Observations
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis is an essential paper regarding mission concept and design. Congratulations on a well composed and written paper. A few comments:
Some concepts are mentioned repeatedly. That is to be expected some, but I got the impression that different parts were written by different authors resulting in redundancy that was not fully reduced when the full paper was compiled. Fixing this is not critical, but you might look for that yourselves during your final edits.
What happens if Sentinel fails before Harmony launches, or in the five subsequent years? Will there be a new Sentinel launched to be in formation with Harmony?
Some of the graphics (especially the text) is not legible at printed paper scale. Is that an antiquated concept? Some text in the figures is unnecessarily small and illegible without enlargement, and some could be easily fixed.
Minor edits:
Line 45: "...Sentinel-1A is operational after failure... [and "is"]
Line 63: "Our contribution is in part based..." [typical English uses "part" not "parts".]
Line 148: "lowland" not "low-land" unless split between text lines.
Line 191: "and is foreseen" [and "is"]
Line 198: "and often rely on" [remove other excess words]
Line 221: "(as few as 12 days repeat)" ... it is down to 12, not up to 12.
Line 447: "typically on the order of" [not "in"]
It was a pleasure to read this paper.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageEnglish is excellent, except for a few minor word selections, as itemized for the authors.
Author Response
********** REFEREE 1 **********
This is an essential paper regarding mission concept and design. Congratulations on a well composed and written paper. A few comments:
COMMENT 1
Some concepts are mentioned repeatedly. That is to be expected some, but I got the impression that different parts were written by different authors resulting in redundancy that was not fully reduced when the full paper was compiled. Fixing this is not critical, but you might look for that yourselves during your final edits.
RESPONSE 2: Thanks for this observation, we removed a number of redundancies.
COMMENT 2
What happens if Sentinel fails before Harmony launches, or in the five subsequent years? Will there be a new Sentinel launched to be in formation with Harmony?
RESPONSE 2: We added a paragraph at the end of section 2 to explain different scenarios in case of failures within the Sentinel-1 mission.
COMMENT 3
Some of the graphics (especially the text) is not legible at printed paper scale. Is that an antiquated concept? Some text in the figures is unnecessarily small and illegible without enlargement, and some could be easily fixed.
RESPONSE 3: We enlarged the font and sizes of all figures.
Minor edits:
Line 45: "...Sentinel-1A is operational after failure... [and "is"]
CORRECTED
Line 63: "Our contribution is in part based..." [typical English uses "part" not "parts".]
CORRECTED
Line 148: "lowland" not "low-land" unless split between text lines.
CORRECTED THROUGHOUT THE MANUSCRIPT
Line 191: "and is foreseen" [and "is"]
CORRECTED
Line 198: "and often rely on" [remove other excess words]
CORRECTED
Line 221: "(as few as 12 days repeat)" ... it is down to 12, not up to 12.
CORRECTED
Line 447: "typically on the order of" [not "in"]
CORRECTED
It was a pleasure to read this paper.
THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR REVIEW AND FOR THIS FRIENDLY FEEDBACK!
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsIn the manuscript title “Potential of the bi-static SAR satellite companion mission Harmony for land-ice observations”, Andreas Kääb et al. elaborated on the potential of the European Space Agency Earth Explorer 10 to be launched around 2029-2030 for observations of land ice. The "Harmony" bistatic SAR satellite companion mission will provide DEM data, ice flow conditions and 3D deformation information for most land ice and permafrost areas, this will provide new support for mapping and monitoring the properties and changes of the cryosphere. In this article, the authors list and describe Harmony's overall scientific goals and mission concepts for land ice, the characteristics of potential data products (Glacier DEM, Glacier velocities, etc.) and the potential advantages compared with other similar data products are also analyzed and discussed in detail. In general, this article is based on Harmony's mission selection report on the land ice mission section of the detailed introduction and analysis. I am confident that the publication of this article will help our community keep abreast of Harmony Earth Explorer 10's potential contribution to cryosphere monitoring. It is well-written and fits the style of Remote Sensing. After correcting a few flaws, I suggest publishing as soon as possible.
1. Lines 94-107, the title of this article is about Harmony's land ice mission, so it seems unnecessary to describe on Harmony's mission-key goals for solid earth, ocean, and ocean-atmospheric dynamics.
2. Figure 1 is too brief and insufficiently clear for the reader to obtain valid information. So either delete the image directly or draw a more detailed picture that is easier for the reader to understand.
3. Lines 493 and 541, two figures are titled as Figure 7. It should be wrong. This makes it difficult for readers to understand the content of the paper, which should be thoroughly revised.
Author Response
********** REFEREE 2 **********
In the manuscript title “Potential of the bi-static SAR satellite companion mission Harmony for land-ice observations”, Andreas Kääb et al. elaborated on the potential of the European Space Agency Earth Explorer 10 to be launched around 2029-2030 for observations of land ice. The "Harmony" bistatic SAR satellite companion mission will provide DEM data, ice flow conditions and 3D deformation information for most land ice and permafrost areas, this will provide new support for mapping and monitoring the properties and changes of the cryosphere. In this article, the authors list and describe Harmony's overall scientific goals and mission concepts for land ice, the characteristics of potential data products (Glacier DEM, Glacier velocities, etc.) and the potential advantages compared with other similar data products are also analyzed and discussed in detail. In general, this article is based on Harmony's mission selection report on the land ice mission section of the detailed introduction and analysis. I am confident that the publication of this article will help our community keep abreast of Harmony Earth Explorer 10's potential contribution to cryosphere monitoring. It is well-written and fits the style of Remote Sensing. After correcting a few flaws, I suggest publishing as soon as possible.
THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR REVIEW AND POSITIVE FEEDBACK!
COMMENT 1
- Lines 94-107, the title of this article is about Harmony's land ice mission, so it seems unnecessary to describe on Harmony's mission-key goals for solid earth, ocean, and ocean-atmospheric dynamics.
RESPONSE 1: We prefer to have some mention of these other goals so that the reader understands that the mission has to make compromises in terms of measurement goals and mission phases. We have now shortened down the part on other mission goals strongly to one short paragraph.
COMMENT 2
- Figure 1 is too brief and insufficiently clear for the reader to obtain valid information. So either delete the image directly or draw a more detailed picture that is easier for the reader to understand.
RESPONSE 2: We have now added information to Figure 1. It is meant as a quick-access graphical summary in contrast to the details given in Figure 2 and hope it now better serves this purpose.
COMMENT 3
- Lines 493 and 541, two figures are titled as Figure 7. It should be wrong. This makes it difficult for readers to understand the content of the paper, which should be thoroughly revised.
CORRECTED