Dear authors,

Thank you very much for response to the referees’ comments and suggestions with regard to your manuscript angeo2018-122 entitled “Geomagnetic Conjugate Observations of Ionospheric Disturbances in response to North Korea Underground Nuclear Explosion on 3 September 2017”. I am very pleased to say that the manuscript is generally well written and clearly presented. However, there is necessary to clarify some statements and information given in the manuscript, also corrections of misprints are requested. I’ll recommend the manuscript for publishing in the Annales Geophysicae after you consider carefully the comments and suggestions of the reviewers and the manuscript will undergo revision. Me and one of the referees will read the manuscript again.
If you are prepared to undertake the improvements required, please submit the revised manuscript.
Kindest regards

Yours sincerely
D. Buresova

Dear authors,

We have received reviewer’s comments with regard to your manuscript angeo2018-122 entitled “Geomagnetic Conjugate Observations of Ionospheric Disturbances in response to North Korea Underground Nuclear Explosion on 3 September 2017”. I am very pleased to say that reviewer found the latest version of the manuscript to be improved. However, there still remain some points to clarify. I’ll recommend the manuscript for publishing in the Annales Geophysicae after you consider carefully the last comments and suggestions of the reviewer and the manuscript will undergo minor revision.
For your convenience I have attached the reviewer’s comments below.

Kindest regards

Yours sincerely
D. Buresova

Reviewer’s comments
This manuscript reported an interesting event about ionospheric disturbances caused by the nuclear explosion which could be associated with LAIC electric field penetration rather than originating from AGW mechanism. This study is useful to understand the ionospheric response to the lithosphere events, including natural and human activities. However, I have some questions about conclusion and results. The authors should address these issues before the possible acceptation.
Comments:
1. It was mentioned that AGWs mechanism cannot explain the geomagnetic conjugate observation. However, the ionospheric disturbances caused by AGWs can also generated the electric field which can also map into the conjugate hemisphere. Jonah et al. (2017) suggested that the daytime MSTIDs (ionospheric disturbances) observed at conjugate hemispheres are caused by AGWs.
Jonah, O. F., E. A. Kherani, and E. R. De Paula (2017), Investigations of conjugate MSTIDS over the Brazilian sector during daytime, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 122, 9576–9587, doi:10.1002/2017JA024365.
2. The schematic sketch of LAIC electric field was used to explain the concentric ionospheric disturbances. How could concentric ionospheric disturbances be caused by electric field?
3. The used method is useful to detect the ionospheric irregularities rather than ionospheric disturbances in this study. This could be the reason that the duration of ionospheric disturbances here is shorted than that observed by Kong et al. (2018).