The dataset of soil moisture observations was obtained by the cutting ring (50cm^3) and ML2X Soil Moisture Tachometer in the Linze station foci experimental area. Surface soil (0-5cm) was measured 2-3 times in 40 subplots of the west-east desert strip on May 24, 25, 28, Jun. 27 and Jul. 11, 2008, 2-4 times in 9 subplots of north-south strip on May 24, 25, 28, Jun. 27 and Jul. 11, 17 times from P1 to P6 strips on Jul. 4 and 8, nine times along LY06 strip on Jun. 6, 15, 29 and Jul. 11, LY07 strip on May 30, Jun. 6, 10, 15, 29 and Jul. 11 and LY08 strip on May 30, Jun. 6 and 10, and once by the cutting ring and three times by ML2X Soil Moisture Tachometer in Wulidun farmland quadrates on May 24, 25, 28, Jun. 29 and Jul. 11. Data were archived as Excel files. See the metadata record “WATER: Dataset of setting of the sampling plots and stripes in the Linze station foci experimental area” for more information of the quadrate locations.

The dataset of automatic meteorological observations was obtained at the Dadongshu mountain snow observation station (E100°14′/N38°01′, 4101m) from Oct. 29, 2007 to Oct. 1, 2009. The experimental area with a flat and open terrain was slightly sloping from southeast to northwest. With alpine meadow and stones, and snow in autumn, winter and spring, the landscape was ideal. Observation items were multilayer (2m and 10m) of the wind speed, the air temperature and air humidity, the air pressure, rain and snow gauges, snow depth, four components of radiation, the multilayer soil temperature (5cm, 10cm, 20cm, 40cm, 80cm, and 120cm), soil moisture (5cm, 10cm, 20cm, 40cm, 80cm, and 120cm), and soil heat flux (5cm & 15cm). The raw data were level0 and the data after basic processes were level1, in which ambiguous ones were marked; the data after strict quality control were defined as Level2. The data files were named as follows: station+datalevel+AMS+datadate. Level2 or above were strongly recommended to domestic users. As for detailed information, please refer to Meteorological and Hydrological Flux Data Guide.

This dataset includes data recorded by the Cold and Arid Research Network of Lanzhou university obtained from an observation system of Meteorological elements gradient of Sidalong Station from October 24 to December 31, 2018. The site (38.430°E, 99.931°N) was located on a forest in the Kangle Sunan, which is near Zhangye city, Gansu Province. The elevation is 3059 m. The installation heights and orientations of different sensors and measured quantities were as follows: air temperature and humidity profile (0.5, 3, 13, 24, and 48 m), wind speed and direction profile (windsonic; 0.5, 3, 13, 24, and 48 m), air pressure (1.5 m), rain gauge (24 m), infrared temperature sensors (4 m and 24m, vertically downward), photosynthetically active radiation (4 m and 24m), soil heat flux (-0.05 m and -0.1m), soil temperature/ moisture/ electrical conductivity profile -0.05, -0.1m, -0.2m, -0.4m and -0.6mr), four-component radiometer (24 m, towards south), sunshine duration sensor(24 m, towards south). The observations included the following: air temperature and humidity (Ta_0.5 m, Ta_3 m, Ta_13 m, Ta_24 m, and Ta_48 m; RH_0.5 m, RH_3 m, RH_13 m, RH_24 m, and RH_48 m) (℃ and %, respectively), wind speed (Ws_0.5 m, Ws_3 m, Ws_13 m, Ws_24 m, and Ws_48 m) (m/s), wind direction (WD_0.5 m, WD_3 m, WD_13 m, WD_24 m, and WD_48 m) (°), air pressure (press) (hpa), precipitation (rain) (mm), four-component radiation (DR, incoming shortwave radiation; UR, outgoing shortwave radiation; DLR_Cor, incoming longwave radiation; ULR_Cor, outgoing longwave radiation; Rn, net radiation) (W/m^2), infrared temperature (IRT_A, IRT_B) (℃), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR_A, PAR_B) (μmol/ (s m^2)), soil heat flux (Gs_0.05m, Gs_0.1m) (W/m^2), soil temperature (Ts_5 cm, Ts_10 cm, Ts_20 cm, Ts_40 cm, and Ts_60 cm) (℃), soil moisture (Ms_5 cm, Ms_10 cm, Ms_20 cm, Ms_40 cm, and Ms_60 cm) (%, volumetric water content),soil water potential (SWP_5cm, SWP_10cm, SWP_20cm, SWP_40cm, and SWP_60cm)(kpa), soil conductivity (Ec_5cm, Ec_10cm, Ec_20cm, Ec_40cm, and Ec_60cm)(μs/cm), sun time (h). The data processing and quality control steps were as follows: (1) The AWS data were averaged over intervals of 10 min for a total of 144 records per day. The soil water potential in the area is so low that it has exceeded the sensor measurements. (2) Data in duplicate records were rejected. (3) Unphysical data were rejected. (4) The data marked in red are problematic data. (5) The format of the date and time was unified, and the date and time were collected in the same column, for example, date and time: 2018-6-10 10:30.

The dataset of the survey at the sampling plots in the transit zone between oasis and desert was obtained in the Linze station foci experimental area. Observation items included: (1) soil moisture and temperature of the soil profiles (0-10cm, 10-20cm, 20-30cm and 30-40cm) measured by the cutting ring method (50cm^3, once each layer) and the probe thermometer (15cm, twice each layer) on May 25, 2008. Data were archived as Excel files. (2) biomass (green weight and dry weight, samples from 0.5m×0.5m) with photos measured by the plant harvesting in LY07 quadrate on Jun. 22, 2008. Data were archived as Excel files. (3) vegetation coverage measured by the diagonal method on Jun. 22, 2008. By estimating the coverage along the two diagonals, the total coverage of the plot can be developed. Data were archived as Excel files.

The dateset of the ground-based RPG-8CH-DP microwave radiometer observations was obtained in the Biandukou foci experimental area from Mar. 14 to 17, 2008. Observation items included the brightness temperature by the ground-based microwave radiometer (18.7GHz and 36.5GHz), the soil temperature by the thermal resistor, the gravimetric soil moisture by the microwave drying method, and the surface roughness by the grid board. The wheat stubble land (38°15'44.13"N, 100°55'35.34"E) was chosen for continuous observations from 11:00 to 24:00 on Mar. 14, with the incidence 20°-70° and the step length 5°. The rape stubble land (38°15'23.17"N, 100°58'37.84"E) was chosen for continuous observations from 10:00 to 21:30 on Mar. 16, with the incidence 20°-70° and the step length 5°. The deep plowed land (38°18'8.28"N, 101° 3'27.22"E) was chosen for short time observations from 17:26 to 19:20 on Mar. 17, with the azimuth angle 240°-300° and the step length 10°, the incidence 40°-70° and the step length 5°. The brightness temperature was archived as .BRT and .txt files (the ASCII format). Each row in .txt was listed by year, month, date, hour, minute, second, 6.925GHz (h), 6.925GHz (v), 10.65GHz (h), 10.65GHz (v) , 18.7GHz (h), 18.7GHz (v), 36.5GHz (h), 36.5GHz (v), the elevation angle, and the azimuth angle. Values for 6.925GHz and 10.65GHz were zero due to malfunction. The roughness data were obtained by the grid board and the camera and the RMS height (cm) and correlation length (cm) were also calculated and archived, which could be opened by Notepad or Microsoft Office Word. Those provide reliable reference for the roughness of the same land cover type. The gravimetric soil moisture (soil samples from 0-1cm, 1-3cm and 3-5cm) was measured by the microwave drying method. The file can be opened by Microsoft Office Word. The shallow layer soil moisture was measured by hydra prob from 12:00 to 17:00 on 14 and by the Hydra probe (straight downward for 0-5cm) and HH2 (level into the soil surface) on 16. The surface temperature was measured by the thermal resistor. The file can be opened by Microsoft Office Word. Four data files were included, the brightness temperature, the surface temperature, the soil moisture and the surface roughness.

Zhanye Airport desert observation system can offer in situ calibration data for TASI, WiDAS and L band sensor used in aerospace experiment. Observation Site: This point is located in a large, homogeneous and flatten desert near by Zhangye Airport. The main vegetation type is Sparse and low shrub. The coordinates of this site: 38°4′41.30" N, 100°41′48.10" E. Observation Instrument: The observation system consists of two SI-111 infrared radiometers (Campbell, USA), one installed vertically downward to land surface, another face to south of zenith angle 35°. SI-111 sensor installed at 4.0 m height. Observation Time: This site operates from 10 June, 2012 to today. Observation data laagered by every 5 seconds uninterrupted. Output data contained sample data of every 5 seconds and mean data of 1 minute. Accessory data: Land surface infrared temperature (by SI-111), sky infrared temperature (by SI-111) can be obtained. Dataset is stored in *.dat file, which can be read by Microsoft excel or other text processing software (UltraEdit, et. al). Table heads meaning: TarT_Atm, Sky infrared temperature @ facing south of zenith angle 35° (℃); SBT_Atm, body temperature of SI-111 sensor (℃) measured sky; TarT_Sur, land surface infrared temperature @ 4.0 m height; SBT_Sur, body temperature of SI-111 sensor (℃) measured land surface. Dataset is stored day by day, named as: data format + site name + interval time + date + time. The detailed information about data item showed in data header introduction in dataset.

This dataset contains the flux measurements from site No.9 eddy covariance system (EC) in the flux observation matrix from 4 June to 17 September, 2012. The site (100.38546° E, 38.87239° N) was located in a cropland (maize surface) in Yingke irrigation district, which is near Zhangye, Gansu Province. The elevation is 1543.34 m. The EC was installed at a height of 3.9 m; the sampling rate was 10 Hz. The sonic anemometer faced north, and the separation distance between the sonic anemometer and the CO2/H2O gas analyzer (Gill&Li7500A) was 0.2 m. Raw data acquired at 10 Hz were processed using the Eddypro post-processing software (Li-Cor Company, http://www.licor.com/env/products/ eddy_covariance/software.html), including spike detection, lag correction of H2O/CO2 relative to the vertical wind component, sonic virtual temperature correction, angle of attack correction, coordinate rotation (2-D rotation), corrections for density fluctuation (Webb-Pearman-Leuning correction), and frequency response correction. The EC data were subsequently averaged over 30 min periods. Moreover, the observation data quality was divided into three classes according to the quality assessment method of stationarity (Δst) and the integral turbulent characteristics test (ITC), which was proposed by Foken and Wichura [1996]: class 1 (level 0: Δst<30 and ITC<30), class 2 (level 1: Δst<100 and ITC<100), and class 3 (level 2: Δst>100 and ITC>100), representing high-, medium-, and low-quality data, respectively. In addition to the above processing steps, the half-hourly flux data were screened in a four-step procedure: (1) data from periods of sensor malfunction were rejected; (2) data before or after 1 h of precipitation were rejected; (3) incomplete 30 min data were rejected when the missing data constituted more than 3% of the 30 min raw record; and (4) data were rejected at night when the friction velocity (u*) was less than 0.1 m/s. There were 48 records per day; the missing data were replaced with -6999. Moreover, suspicious data were marked in red. The released data contained the following variables: data/time, wind direction (Wdir, °), wind speed (Wnd, m/s), the standard deviation of the lateral wind (Std_Uy, m/s), virtual temperature (Tv, ℃), H2O mass density (H2O, g/m^3), CO2 mass density (CO2, mg/m^3), friction velocity (ustar, m/s), stability (z/L), sensible heat flux (Hs, W/m^2), latent heat flux (LE, W/m^2), carbon dioxide flux (Fc, mg/ (m^2s)), quality assessment of the sensible heat flux (QA_Hs), quality assessment of the latent heat flux (QA_LE), and quality assessment of the carbon flux (QA_Fc). In this dataset, the time of 0:30 corresponds to the average data for the period between 0:00 and 0:30; the data were stored in *.xlsx format. For more information, please refer to Liu et al. (2016) (for multi-scale observation experiment or sites information), Xu et al. (2013) (for data processing) in the Citation section.

This dataset includes data recorded by the Hydrometeorological observation network obtained from the automatic weather station (AWS) at the observation system of Meteorological elements gradient of Huangzangsi station between 10 June, 2013, and 31 December, 2013. The site (100.192° E, 38.225° N) was located on a cropland (wheat) surface in the Huangzangsi village, Babao town, Qilian County, Qinghai Province. The elevation is 2612 m. The installation heights and orientations of different sensors and measured quantities were as follows: air temperature and humidity profile (HMP45AD; 5 m, north), wind speed and direction profile (03001; 10 m, north), air pressure (278; in the tamper box on the ground), rain gauge (TE525M; 10 m), four-component radiometer (CNR4; 6 m, south), two infrared temperature sensors (IRTC3; 6 m, south, vertically downward), soil heat flux (HFT3; 3 duplicates with G1 below the vegetation; G2 and G3 between plants, -0.06 m), soil temperature profile (AV-10T; 0, -0.04, -0.1, -0.2, -0.4, -0.8, -1.2, and -1.6 m), and soil moisture profile (CS616; -0.04, -0.1, -0.2, -0.4, -0.8, -1.2, and -1.6 m). The observations included the following: air temperature and humidity (Ta_5 m; RH_5 m) (℃ and %, respectively), wind speed (Ws_10 m) (m/s), wind direction (WD_10 m) (°), air pressure (press) (hpa), precipitation (rain) (mm), four-component radiation (DR, incoming shortwave radiation; UR, outgoing shortwave radiation; DLR_Cor, incoming longwave radiation; ULR_Cor, outgoing longwave radiation; Rn, net radiation) (W/m2), infrared temperature (IRT_1 and IRT_2) (℃), soil heat flux (Gs_1, Gs_2 and Gs_3) (W/m2), soil temperature (Ts_0 cm, Ts_4 cm, Ts_10 cm, Ts_20 cm, Ts_40 cm, Ts_80 cm, Ts_120 cm, and Ts_160 cm) (℃), and soil moisture (Ms_4 cm, Ms_10 cm, Ms_20 cm, Ms_40 cm, Ms_80 cm, Ms_120 cm, and Ms_160 cm) (%, volumetric water content). The data processing and quality control steps were as follows: (1) The AWS data were averaged over intervals of 10 min for a total of 144 records per day. The missing data were denoted by -6999. (2) Data in duplicate records were rejected. (3) Unphysical data were rejected. (4) The data marked in red are problematic data. (5) The format of the date and time was unified, and the date and time were collected in the same column, for example, date and time: 2013-9-10 10:30. (6) Finally, the naming convention was AWS+ site no. Moreover, suspicious data were marked in red. For more information, please refer to Li et al. (2013) (for hydrometeorological observation network or sites information), Liu et al. (2011) (for data processing) in the Citation section.

This dataset is the snow cover dataset based on the MODIS fractional snow cover mapping algorithm Coupled Regional Approach (CRA). The CRA algorithm mainly consists of three parts. (1) First, the N-FINDR (Volume Iterative Approach) and OSP (Orthogonal Subspace Projection) are used to automatically extract the endmember according to the settings (extracting 30 end endmembers). (2) On the basis of automatic extraction, combined with the IGBG land cover type map, six types of endmembers of snow, vegetation, cloud, soil, rock and water are selected by the manual screening method, and an annual spectrum database is established according to the 2009 image. There are 3 spectra in the early, middle and late months and 36 spectra a year. (3) The established spectral database is used as a priori knowledge, and based on prior knowledge, the fully constrained linear unmixing method (FCLS) for subpixel decomposition is used to obtain the fractional snow cover products. The NDSI ratio algorithm with improved topographic effect is used to obtain the snow cover area, the spatiotemporal data are then interpolated, and, finally, the multisource data fusion with the AMSR-E microwave snow depth product is undertaken. The dataset adopts a latitude and longitude (Geographic) projection method. The datum is WGS84, and the spatial resolution is 0.005°. It provides the daily cloudless snow cover area map of the Tibetan Plateau from 2008 to 2010. The data set is stored by year and consists of 3 folders from 2008 to 2010. Each folder contains the classification results of the daily snow cover of the current year. It is a tif file with the naming rule YYYY***.tif, in which YYYY represents the year (2008-2010), and *** represents the day (001~365/ 366). It can be opened directly with ARCGIS or ENVI.

On 7 July 2012 (UTC+8), a CASI/SASI sensor boarded on the Y-12 aircraft was used to obtain the visible/near Infrared hyperspectral image, which is located in the observation experimental area. The relative flight altitude is 2000 meters, The wavelength of CASI and SASI is 380-1050 nm and 950-2450 nm, respectively. The spatial resolution of CASI and SASI is 1 m and 2.4 m, respectively. Through the ground sample points and atmospheric data, the data product are recorded in reflectance processed by geometric correction and atmospheric correction based on 6S model.

This data is the ASTER fractional vegetation cover in a growth cycle observed in the Yingke Oasis Crop land. Data observations began on May 30, 2012 and ended on September 12. Original data: 1.15m resolution L1B reflectivity product of ASTER 2.Vegetation coverage data set of the artificial oasis experimental area in the middle reaches Data processing: 1.Preprocessing of ASTER reflectance products to obtain ASTER NDVI; 2.Through the NDVI-FVC nonlinear transformation form, the ASTER NDVI and the ground measured FVC are used to obtain the conversion coefficients of NDVI to FVC at different ASTER scales. 3.Apply this coefficient to the ASTER image to obtain a vegetation coverage of 15m resolution; 4.Aggregate 15m resolution ASTER FVC to get 1km ASTER FVC product

This dataset contains the flux measurements from the Huazhaizi desert steppe station eddy covariance system (EC) in the flux observation matrix from 6 June to 15 September, 2012. The site (100.31860° E, 38.76519° N) was located in a desert surface, which is near Zhangye, Gansu Province. The elevation is 1731.00 m. The EC was installed at a height of 2.85 m; the sampling rate was 10 Hz. The sonic anemometer faced north, and the separation distance between the sonic anemometer and the CO2/H2O gas analyzer (CSAT3&Li7500) was 0.15 m. Raw data acquired at 10 Hz were processed using the Edire post-processing software (University of Edinburgh, http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/abs/research/micromet/EdiRe/), including spike detection, lag correction of H2O/CO2 relative to the vertical wind component, sonic virtual temperature correction, coordinate rotation (2-D rotation), corrections for density fluctuation (Webb-Pearman-Leuning correction), and frequency response correction. The EC data were subsequently averaged over 30 min periods. Moreover, the observation data quality was divided into three classes according to the quality assessment method of stationarity (Δst) and the integral turbulent characteristics test (ITC), which was proposed by Foken and Wichura [1996]: class 1 (level 0: Δst<30 and ITC<30), class 2 (level 1: Δst<100 and ITC<100), and class 3 (level 2: Δst>100 and ITC>100), representing high-, medium-, and low-quality data, respectively. In addition to the above processing steps, the half-hourly flux data were screened in a four-step procedure: (1) data from periods of sensor malfunction were rejected; (2) data before or after 1 h of precipitation were rejected; (3) incomplete 30 min data were rejected when the missing data constituted more than 3% of the 30 min raw record; and (4) data were rejected at night when the friction velocity (u*) was less than 0.1 m/s. There were 48 records per day; the missing data were replaced with -6999. Moreover, suspicious data were marked in red. The released data contained the following variables: data/time, wind direction (Wdir, °), wind speed (Wnd, m/s), the standard deviation of the lateral wind (Std_Uy, m/s), virtual temperature (Tv, ℃), H2O mass density (H2O, g/m^3), CO2 mass density (CO2, mg/m^3), friction velocity (ustar, m/s), stability (z/L), sensible heat flux (Hs, W/m^2), latent heat flux (LE, W/m^2), carbon dioxide flux (Fc, mg/ (m^2s)), quality assessment of the sensible heat flux (QA_Hs), quality assessment of the latent heat flux (QA_LE), and quality assessment of the carbon flux (QA_Fc). In this dataset, the time of 0:30 corresponds to the average data for the period between 0:00 and 0:30; the data were stored in *.xlsx format. For more information, please refer to Liu et al. (2016) (for multi-scale observation experiment or sites information), Xu et al. (2013) (for data processing) in the Citation section.