Interactive comment on “Evaluation of balloon and satellite water vapour measurements in theSouthern tropical UTLS during the HIBISCUS

The authors combine balloon-borne in situ measurements of water vapour in the tropical tropopause region during the HIBISCUS campaign with observational data of several satellite instruments. Although the performed measurements are of large scientific value, they are not presented well in the paper. The approach of evaluating different types of water vapour measurements is diluted by the way they compare the data. The largest part of the comparison describes the different measurements relative to AIRS, which has been found unreliable at mixing ratios below 10 ppmv by Gettelman et al.(2004). Here, AIRS may have been selected as a reference due to its high spatial and temporal sampling, but the current presentation implies AIRS as a suitable reference in the stratosphere which very much confuses the picture. While the evalua-