Comparison of Snow Indices in Assessing Snow Cover Depth in Northern Kazakhstan

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Review Comments

The Paper “Comparison of snow indices in assessing snow cover depth in Northern Kazakhstan” is a very interesting study. This study compares the performances of four existing snow indices (Normalized-Difference Snow Index, Normalized-Difference Snow and Ice  Index,  Difference Snow Index, and  Ratio Snow Index) in estimating snow cover depth at three agricultural enterprises in different soil zones, namely, the  “North Kazakhstan Agricultural  Experimental Station.

Overall, I believe the paper has interesting potentials, though there are several issues that should be carefully addressed; I would suggest a thorough revision of the paper before it could be considered for publication in the journal.

Comments
The introductory section is rather general and should be enhanced with additional elements focusing on the specific study. The review of literature on the specific subject (Comparison of snow indices in assessing snow cover) should be more thorough and the selection of approach should be further justified.

Although, the goals of the study are mentioned, the framework of their achievement is not clearly described. It is important to set clearly the objectives of the study and need more clarification that will provide the context of the overall approach, formulate the discussion base and help the reader to follow more easily the structure of the paper. For example, this study outcomes form a scientific basis for early warning of spring floods, combating meteorological and  agricultural  droughts,  and  developing  more  accurate  approaches  for  estimating  snow  depths over vast territories using geographic information systems (GISs) and remote sensing methods. It need further justification in the introductory part of paper.

In the introduction, there is need to address the questions of the research (which could be answered either through the literature review or through the results and discussion), such as: What advantages/disadvantages have of the selected snow indices? Why all these snow indices should be used in this study?

Specific Comments

(1)   What is the scientific reason to choose the Normalized-Difference Snow Index, Normalized-Difference Snow and Ice Index, Difference Snow Index, and Ratio Snow Index then other?

(2)   The authors mention in Page 9 line 253 “All spectral indices except the RSI accurately classified the snow-covered territories”. Need some statistics

(3)   Overall, what would be the scientific contribution of this work for international research community?

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors reported compares the performances of four existing snow indices (Normalized-Difference Snow Index, Normalized-Difference Snow and Ice Index, Difference Snow Index, and Ratio Snow Index) in estimating snow cover depth at three agricultural enterprises in different soil zones. The study is meaningful, but some questions should be addressed and some minor revisions are needed.

Why author choose these four existing snow indices? What problems do author want to explain in the article? Please make it clear in the introduction.

Method of measuring the snow height and density should be present in this manuscript not just for Figure 3.

How to analyze using Quantum GIS, ERDAS IMAGINE software in 2.3 section

The legend for figure 5, 7, 8 and 9 are vague and needs further optimization

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper goal was to compare the performances of four existing snow indices in estimating snow cover depth at three agricultural enterprises in different soil zones, in winter 2022.  The Authors showed  interesting results.  Work written correctly,  research methods selected and described correctly, results presented in a clear manner, enough literature included, although it was found the bad citation of the literature. The literature citation must be improve according to requirements of the Journal (all is marked in the text of the paper). The paper needs a few corrections connected also with units notation.

After all  corrections the paper can be publish in the MDPI Sustainability Journal.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Authors have improved the manuscript. Therefore, I recommend this manuscript for publication.