Surface and Subsurface Heatwaves in the Hypersaline Dead Sea Caused by Severe Dust Intrusion
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe paper titled "Surface and subsurface heatwaves in the hypersaline Dead Sea caused by severe dust intrusion" is a well-structured and scientifically rigorous study that investigates the impact of dust intrusions on lake heatwaves (LHWs) in the Dead Sea. I have attached my comments in the Word file. I hope my comment will enhance the quality of this paper.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe work is interesting. The manuscript is well written, the results and conclusions are clearly formulated. The work is ready for publication with no amendments.
There was one question that could be commented on for the sake of completeness of the analysis.
The authors focus their research on considering for the first time the processes of heat wave formation in the air and in the water near the interface of these media above the salt lake. Freshwater reservoirs, within the framework of this topic, were previously studied by the authors. Therefore, it would be interesting to highlight and additionally comment on the differences between the results obtained in this work and those for freshwater lakes. This is partially done according to the text of the article, but the conclusions are not emphasized, except for one concerning aerosols above the water surface of the Dead Sea. What is the role of high salinity in the studied processes? What parameters may differ due to different salinity?
This wish is not a necessary requirement for this article. The authors can take it into account or not.
Author Response
See the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsComments and suggestion to the authors are included in the attached
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe subject of interest in this paper is the relationship between the lake heatwaves and the dust intrusions where the study area is the hypersaline Dead Sea. More specifically, this study analyzes surface and subsurface lake heatwaves caused by the severe dust intrusion that appeared in September 2015. It does not propose a novel methodology, in fact, it uses the approach used earlier and applied on the freshwater Lake Kinneret located north of the Dead Sea. It means that the contribution of this paper is concentrated on the results, i.e., the dust impact on a hypersaline lake. The current state of the research field is reviewed mostly adequately, and key publications are cited in the introduction section. Study area, used data, and methods are presented well. I have only one suggestion. The discussion section contains mostly the description of experimental results, interpretations, and experimental conclusions. In this section, the results obtained are interpreted only from the perspective of the study of freshwater Lake Kinneret, and consequently, there are only two references cited. Findings and their implications should be discussed in a broader context.
Author Response
See the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
