See attached file

This paper designs an integrated tool, ISAT v2.0, to configure nested model grid, downscale regional grided inventory, spatially allocate provincial/city-level inventory, and finally generate model-ready emission data. These are often the tedious and error-prone tasks that one has to do before running a WRF-AQM simulation, and ISAT v2.0 is designed to streamline this process with a clear and user-friendly workflow. In this sense, the modeling tool described in this paper definitely has its value and, if well implemented, can be very helpful to users. However, there are some tools that can accomplish similar tasks. Compared to those existing tools, I am not convinced that this new tool, as described in the current form, represents “substantial new concepts, ideas, or methods” (GMD criteria on scientific signficance) in geoscientific modeling.   A clear presentation of scientific novelty and contributions is required to meet the GMD standard.

The authors present “sub-grid nearest” method as an innovation. This is not a new idea either. In section 3.2, the “sub-grid nearest” method is compared with the nearest method and the intersect method. The accuracy of the method is shown with R2, but the claimed computing efficiency of the “sub-grid nearest” method is not discussed.