Dear Dr. Schütte and co-authors,

as suggested earlier this month, I can now accept your paper for publication. Reading through the changes have been made, I include a list of edits, identified by page and line number (taken from the "response", where I could readily see where changes had been made) that you should make (so long as I have not misunderstood the intention of the original statement!).

Thank you for your good work on the paper, it has been a pleasure to see it through.

Sincerely yours, --Matthew Hecht

p 32 line 17: in its cores -> in their cores

p 37 line 34: the outmost -> the outermost

p 38 lines 10-12: This line is unclear:

If an eddy is detected an eddy center is identified analog to the OW-method as maximum (anticyclone) or minimum (cyclone) of SLA within the identified eddy structure.

Would this be a correct revision of the statement?

If an eddy is detected, then an eddy center is identified in analogy to the OW-method as the maximum (anticyclone) or the minimum (cyclone) of SLA within the identified eddy structure.

p 38 line 20: at least in -> in at least

p 38 line 24: reemerges -> re-emerge

p 40 line 9: iv) continuous and -> with iv) continuous and

p 40 line 31: and ±0.01 for salinity.
Please include units.

p 41 line 25: Argo floats profiles -> Argo float profiles

p 43 line 20: the amount of eddies -> the number of eddies

p 44 lines 30-31:
the identification of few very large eddies using the GEO-method, which is
not the case for the OW-method. ->
the identification of relatively few very large eddies using the GEO-method.

p 45 line 29: the amount of newly generated -> the number of newly generated

p 51 line 4: depend on the used reference profiles. -> depend on the reference profiles that are used.

p 52 lines 14-16:
The ACME observed in the Southeast Pacific transports in contrast to the composite ACMEs in the TANWA warm and saline waters in its core offshore. ->

The ACME observed in the Southeast Pacific transports, in contrast to the composite ACMEs in the TANWA, warm and saline waters in its core offshore.

p 61 line 4: on less years -> on fewer years

p 62 line 5:
salt values are not included in monthly base ->
salt values are not included in monthly database