Thermal characteristics of permafrost in the steep alpine rock walls of the Aiguille du Midi (Mont Blanc Massif, 3842 m a.s.l)

Magnin, F.; Deline, P.; Ravanel, L.; Noetzli, J.; Pogliotti, P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-109-2015

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-109-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-109-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 1

Research article

|

16 Jan 2015

Research article |

| 16 Jan 2015

Thermal characteristics of permafrost in the steep alpine rock walls of the Aiguille du Midi (Mont Blanc Massif, 3842 m a.s.l)

F. Magnin, P. Deline, L. Ravanel, J. Noetzli, and P. Pogliotti

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Final revised paper (published on 16 Jan 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 04 Jun 2014)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C1226: 'Referee comment on Magnin et al.: "Thermal characteristics of permafrost in the steep alpine rock walls of the Aiguille du Midi (Mont Blanc Massif, 3842 m a.s.l)"', Anonymous Referee #1, 10 Jul 2014
- AC C1995: 'Answers to anonymous referee #1', Florence Magnin, 09 Oct 2014
RC C1747: 'Referee comment on “Thermal characteristics of permafrost in the steep alpine rock walls of the Aiguille du Midi (Mont Blanc Massif, 3842ma:s:l:)” by F. Magnin et al.', Andreas Hasler, 06 Sep 2014
- AC C2002: 'Answers to A. Hasler, referee #2', Florence Magnin, 09 Oct 2014

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Florence Magnin on behalf of the Authors (09 Oct 2014) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (18 Oct 2014) by Tingjun Zhang (deceased)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (03 Nov 2014)

RR by Andreas Hasler (18 Nov 2014)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Referee comment on revised “Thermal characteristics of permafrost in the steep alpine rock walls of the Aiguille du Midi (Mont Blanc Massif, 3842ma:s:l:)”
by F. Magnin et al.

The manuscript experienced considerable changes since the first submission. These changes are: a) minor reorganization and reformulation throughout the manuscript; b) major changes in the discussion part (sect. 5 & 6) with clearer separation between observation and interpretation; c) the sub-section on heat fluxes has been completely erased; d) new content regarding latent effects has been introduced in discussion, conclusion and abstract.

These measures resulted in an increased understandability of the manuscript. As a consequence it allows questioning some (partly new) points of the discussion. Regarding the latent heat effects the paper does not present convincing figures to support these conclusions. In other parts of the discussion (interannual variability) it is still hard to follow the reasoning. Generally, it is not evident for each conclusion how it is based on the data!

The almost complete reduction of the part on the non-conductive heat transport gives much less weight to one of the most interesting findings in the presented data set. The language of the revised manuscript has still shortcomings. On my opinion the manuscript needs the following revision for publication in TC (ordered by priority):

Major concerns:

Latent heat:
The dampening of active layer thickness by latent heat consumption is postulated in the revised version as one of the main new findings (abstract, discussion, conclusions 10). This effect is well known in arctic ice-rich soils but I could not see the empirical evidence (zero curtain, isothermal profil) for this effect being relevant in the present data from steep bedrock.

Language:
Regarding terms and language the manuscript still needs improvement. Often I had to read the sentences twice to understand. The sentences could be expressed simpler and straighter to the point. There are several mistakes in grammar and style. Terms and adjectives may be used more accurate. Some of them are mentioned in the Detailed comments. The manuscript clearly needs a second revision regarding the language.

Non-conductive heat transfer (former section 6.3):
I think to simply erase this content from the manuscript is a petty. I don’t agree that doing an analysis as suggested would go beyond the scope of the paper. Making a profile plot of several points in time of BH_N is a minor effort and would allow seeing (qualitatively; see below) where the fracture acts as a heat sink/source and where it simply causes a step in the temperature profile. (The other suggestion with a heat conduction scheme is a larger effort, I agree). See example in attached PDF!

Interannual variability of the SO
A large part of the discussion on “Snow cover and micro-meteorological influence” is focused on the interannual variability. Tree (of ten) conclusions are made on the interannual variability of the MAGST. Given the small evidence presented (without reference to an illustrative figure) to support of these conclusions this strong focus is not justified. And
For further details on this matter see attached PDF.

For Detailed Comments see attached PDF.

Referee Report: PDF

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (30 Nov 2014) by Tingjun Zhang (deceased)

AR by Svenja Lange on behalf of the Authors (09 Dec 2014) Author's response

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (21 Dec 2014) by Tingjun Zhang (deceased)

AR by Anna Wenzel on behalf of the Authors (22 Dec 2014) Author's response

ED: Publish as is (22 Dec 2014) by Tingjun Zhang (deceased)