Interactive comment on “Using satellite data to improve the leaf phenology of a global Terrestrial Biosphere Model” by N. MacBean

First, the optimization procedure was not explained clearly. The authors estimated global minimum of the cost function by starting at 20 different random “first guest” points. It was not clear which model outputs were used in the calculation, fAPAR, SOS, EOS, or GSL? Did the 20 points mean 20 sets of parameters that change at the same time, or 20 different values for each individual parameter while fixing other parameters? Was the ORCHIDEE model required to re-run for each different set of x (parameters), that is to say 20 times?