date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 19:25:06 UT from: jgr-atmospheres@agu.org subject: 2008JD009916 (Editor - Yinon Rudich): Decision Letter to: p.jones@uea.ac.uk Content-Disposition: inline Content-Length: 4417 Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary Content-Type: text/plain Manuscript Number: 2008JD009916 Manuscript Title: Urbanization effects in large-scale temperature trends, with an emphasis on China Dear Dr. Jones: Attached below please find 2 reviews on your above-referenced paper. The two Reviewers raised questions and made suggestions for important revisions. Especially Reviewer #2 questions some of the data used and Reviewer #1 suggests to include analysis from more rural sites. Please consider the Reviewer reports carefully, make the necessary changes in your manuscript and respond to me, explaining how you have addressed these comments (also in the general parts of teh reviews). In your Response to Reviewer letter, please include a statement confirming that all authors listed on the manuscript concur with submission in its revised form. The due date for your revised paper is May 5, 2008. If you will be unable to submit a revised manuscript by May 5, 2008, please notify my office and arrange for an extension (maximum two weeks). If we do not hear from you by the revision due date, your manuscript will be considered as withdrawn. When you are ready to submit your revision, please use the link below. (NOTE: The link above automatically submits your login name and password. If you wish to share this link with co-authors or colleagues, please be aware that they will have access to your entire account for this journal.) Sincerely, Yinon Rudich Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres -----------Important JGR-Atmospheres Information------------------------------ Submission, Review and Publication Stages Chart Text Preparation and Formatting Manuscript Preparation Acceptable Electronic File Formats Editorial Style Guide for Authors Auxiliary Materials (Electronic Supplements) Artwork Preparation Guidelines for Preparing Graphics Files Figure FAQ Prices for Color in AGU Journals AGU Copyright Transfer Form Manuscript Status Tool (for manuscripts recently accepted) If you need assistance with file formats and/or color charges please e-mail jgr-atmospheres@agu.org and quote your manuscript number. If you need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the forms, it is available, free, on the internet at: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reviewer Comments Reviewer #1 Evaluations: Assessment: Category 3 Ranking: Good Reviewer #2 Evaluations: Assessment: Category 2 Ranking: Excellent Reviewer #2 (Comments): This is a pretty straight forward paper that needs little work for publication. I think the analysis shows the points about the urban heat island and trends very well. Following are just a few suggestions. First, although I know what the paper is about I feel the exact purpose needs to be made clearer in the Introduction. It seems a little muddled in the second paragraph where it says the emphasis is China, but section 2 is about European examples. More correctly it should say something like "we set the stage with two European examples, then follow with an analysis of China". Also, although there is discussion about rapid growth in China, I suspect there is another reason China is analyzed. Minor comments. 1. Easterling et al. 1996 in J. of Climate also showed that the effects of homogeneity adjustments diminish as the size of the area being analyzed increases. 2. The authors may want to include a reference to "solar dimming" at the end of section 3.0 where they discuss air pollution effects. 3. Question: since surface air temperature is assimilated into ERA40 is an urban influence de facto included? If so, how is this controlled for in the analysis, or is this effect not detectable in ERA40? 4. Figure 1, what happened at the LWC in the early to late 1990s? The difference between LWC and St. James Park is almost non-existent during that period. 5. Figure 8, any explanation for the difference between the SST temps and Land-box temps from CRU in the 1920s-1940s? This looks like it impacts the trends, giving the SSTs more of a trend than the CRU box for the 1900-present period. Also, no trends are calculated for this period, all start in 1951 or later so why plot the data back to 1900? Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\1_reviewer_attachment_1_1202866764.pdf"