Dear authors,

I find that you provide very thoughtful responses to the three referees comments.
I have not heard from them, or seen additional replies.
To my mind, this is satisfactory and the additional figure is interesting and challenging.

Thus, I am looking forward with your edited revision, that I will read (Editor review)
to make sure that it includes the response to the three reviews.

With best regards, Gilles.

Dear Patricia,

thank-you for having provided this final version.
You clearly have very nicely taken into account the different comments received.
I enjoyed reading it.

They might be a few technical corrections to provide.
I noticed:
l. 521: 'is the main responsible' is not grammatical
l. 525: 'Duchez' instead of 'Dutchez'
in the reference list for
Frajka-Williams et al., 2017: the journal should be refered to (I think) as:
Nature, Scientific Reports.
In de Boisseson et al, you should abbreviate J. Geophys. Res.
Debruyères et al: also abbreviate the journal's title
id. for Gaillard et al., Josey et al., Kieke and Yashayaev; Levitus et al., Riser et al., Rossby et al.,
Spall et al., Williams et al.