The dataset of ground truth measurement synchronizing with the airborne imaging spectrometer (OMIS-II) mission was obtained in the Linze station foci experimental area on Jun. 15, 2008. Observation items included: (1) soil moisture (0-5cm) measured by the cutting ring method (50cm^3) in LY06 and LY07 strips (repeated nine times). The preprocessed soil volumetric moisture data were archived as Excel files. (2) surface radiative temperature measured by three handheld infrared thermometer (5# and 6# from Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, and one from Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources, which were all calibrated) in the LY06 and LY07 strips (49 points and repeated three times), and Wulidun farmland quadrates (various points and repeated three times). 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 ground truth measurements synchronizing with airborne Polarimetric L-band Multibeam Radiometer (PLMR) mission was obtained in upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin on 1 August, 2012. PLMR is a dual-polarization (H/V) airborne microwave radiometer with a frequency of 1.413 GHz, which can provide multi-angular observations with 6 beams at ±7º, ±21.5º and ±38.5º. The PLMR spatial resolution (beam spot size) is approximately 0.3 times the altitude, and the swath width is about twice the altitude. The measurements were conducted along two transects respectively located at the west and east branches of the Babaohe River and two sampling plots in the A’rou foci experimental area. Along the transects, soil moisture was sampled at every 50 m in the west-east direction. In order to keep the ground measurements following the airborne mission as synchronous as possible in temporal, measurements were made discontinuously. In the A’rou foci experimental area, two sampling plots were identified with areas of 1.5 km × 0.6 km and 0.85 km × 0.6 km. In each plot, soil moisture was sampled at every 50 m in the west-east direction and 100 m in the north-south direction. Steven Hydro probes were used to collect soil moisture and other measurements. Concurrently with soil moisture sampling, vegetation properties were measured at some typical sampling plots. Observation items included: Soil parameters: volumetric soil moisture (inherently converted from measured soil dielectric constant), soil temperature, soil dielectric constant, soil electric conductivity. Vegetation parameters: biomass, vegetation water content, canopy height. Data and data format: This dataset includes two parts of measurements, i.e. soil and vegetation parameters. The former is as shapefile, with measured items stored in its attribute table. The measured vegetation parameters are recorded in an Excel file.

This dataset contains the flux measurements from site No.11 eddy covariance system (EC) in the flux observation matrix from May 29 to September 18, 2012. The site (100.34197° E, 38.86991° N) was located in a cropland (maize surface) in Yingke irrigation district, which is near Zhangye, Gansu Province. The elevation is 1575.65 m. The EC was installed at a height of 3.5 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.

This dataset includes soil moisture, soil temperature and land surface temperature observations of 50 WATERNET wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes during the period from May to September 2012, which is one type of WSN nodes in the Heihe eco-hydrological wireless sensor network (WSN). The WATERNET located in the 4×4 MODIS grids in the observation matrix in the Zhangye oasis. Each WATERNET node observes the soil moisture, soil temperature, soil conductivity and complex dielectric constant at 4 cm and 10 cm depths by the Hydra Probe II sensor. There are 29 nodes among the WATERNET with the SI-111 sensor at 4 m height to measure the surface radiance temperature. The operational observation interval is 10 minutes, and the intensive observation mode with 1 minute is activated during 00:00-04:30, 08:00-18:00 and 21:00-24:00 (UTC+8), in order to synchronize with airborne or satellite-borne remote sensors. This dataset can be used in the estimation of surface hydrothermal variables and their validation, eco-hydrological research, irrigation management and so on. The detail description please refers to "WATERNET_Data_Document_HRBMiddle.docx”.

This dataset contains the automatic weather station (AWS) measurements from site No.5 in the flux observation matrix from 4 June to 18 September, 2012. The site (100.35068° E, 38.87574° N) was located in a cropland (maize surface) in Yingke irrigation district, which is near Zhangye, Gansu Province. The elevation is 1567.65 m. The installation heights and orientations of different sensors and measured quantities were as follows: air temperature and humidity (HMP45C; 5 m, towards north), air pressure (CS100; 2 m), rain gauge (TE525M; 10 m), wind speed and direction (010C/020C; 10 m, towards north), a four-component radiometer (CNR1; 4 m, towards south), two infrared temperature sensors (SI-111; 4 m, vertically downward), soil temperature profile (AV-10T; 0, -0.02, -0.04, -0.1, -0.2, -0.4, -0.6, and -1.0 m), soil moisture profile (CS616; -0.02, -0.04, -0.1, -0.2, -0.4, -0.6, and -1.0 m), and soil heat flux (HFP01; 3 duplicates with one below the vegetation and the other between plants, 0.06 m). The observations included the following: air temperature and humidity (Ta_5 m and RH_5 m) (℃ and %, respectively), air pressure (press, hpa), precipitation (rain, mm), wind speed (Ws_10 m, m/s), wind direction (WD_10 m, °), 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_1 and IR_2, ℃), soil heat flux (Gs_1, below the vegetation; Gs_2 and Gs_3, W/m^2), soil temperature profile (Ts_0 cm, Ts_2 cm, Ts_4 cm, Ts_10 cm, Ts_20 cm, Ts_40 cm, Ts_60 cm, and Ts_100 cm, ℃), and soil moisture profile (Ms_2 cm, Ms_4 cm, Ms_10 cm, Ms_20 cm, Ms_40 cm, Ms_60 cm, and Ms_100 cm, %). The data processing and quality control steps were as follows. (1) The AWS data were averaged over intervals of 10 min; therefore, there were 144 records per day. The missing data were filled with -6999. (2) Data in duplicate records were rejected. (3) Unphysical data were rejected. (4) In this dataset, the time of 0:10 corresponds to the average data for the period between 0:00 and 0:10; the data were stored in *.xlsx format. (5) Finally, the naming convention was AWS+ site no. Moreover, suspicious data were marked in red. 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 Jingyangling station between 15 August, 2013, and 31 December, 2013. The site (101.116° E, 37.838° N) was located on a cold meadow surface in the Jingyangling, Qilian County, Qinghai Province. The elevation is 3750 m. The installation heights and orientations of different sensors and measured quantities were as follows: air temperature and humidity profile (HMP45AC; 5 m, north), wind speed and direction profile (034B; 10 m, north), air pressure (CS100; in the tamper box on the ground), rain gauge (TE525M; 10 m), four-component radiometer (CNR1; 6 m, south), two infrared temperature sensors (SI-111; 6 m, south, vertically downward), soil heat flux (HFP01; 3 duplicates, -0.06 m), soil temperature profile (109-L; 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/m^2), infrared temperature (IRT_1 and IRT_2) (℃), soil heat flux (Gs_1, Gs_2 and Gs_3) (W/m^2), 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 radiation data were missing because of wiring problem. 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 contains the flux measurements from the mixed forest station eddy covariance system (EC) in the lower reaches of the Heihe hydrometeorological observation network from 12 July to 31 December, 2013. The site (101.134° E, 41.990° N) was located in the Populus and Tamarix surface, Ejin Banner in Inner Mongolia. The elevation is 874 m. The EC was installed at a height of 22 m, and 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 0.17 m. The 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 the 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. 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), as 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), which represent high-, medium-, and low-quality data, respectively. In addition to the above processing steps, the half-hourly flux data were screened using a four-step procedure: (1) data from periods of sensor malfunction were rejected; (2) data collected 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 0.2 m/s. There were 48 records per day, and the missing data were replaced with -6999. Suspicious data were marked in red. Due to the malfunction of sonic anemometer, data during 16 August to 17 September were missing. 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 *.xls format. 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.

A land surface temperature and upward/downward shortwave radiation observation system was set up on the roof, which locate on the edge of No.4 eddy covariance system (EC4) of the MUlti-Scale Observation EXperiment on Evapotranspiration over heterogeneous land surfaces 2012 (MUSOEXE-12). This observation site 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 and homogeneous adobe roof in Shiqiao Village, Xiaoman Town, Zhangye City. Land surface of observation site is relatively flat and uniform, and also not tall trees around. It’s about 20 meters away from southwest No.4 eddy covariance system (EC4) observation points. The coordinates of this site: 38°52′38.50″ N，100°21′27.00″ E。 Observation Instrument: Observation system is composed of a SI-111 infrared radiometer (Campbell, USA) installed vertically downward, two CMP3 pyranometer (Kipp&Zonen, Netherlands) one upward, another downward. Observation height is 1.0 m, data logging by a Campbell CR850 logger. Sensor orientation： Observation mounting arm has 3 m long, parallel to roof edge, azimuth angle: 156° (East by south 66°) Observation Time: This site operates from 23 June, 2012 to 20 September, 2012. 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 (adobe roof) temperature, downward/upward total solar radiation, surface albedo. Dataset is stored in *.dat file, which can be read by Microsoft excel or other text processing software (UltraEdit, et. al). Table heads meaning: Rs_downwell, downward shortwave radiation (W/m^2); Rs_upwell, upward (reflect) shortwave radiation (W/m^2); albedo, calculate by Rs_upwell/ Rs_downwell. SBT_C, body temperature of SI-111 sensor (℃); Target_C, Target of surface temperature (℃). 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 includes data recorded by the Hydrometeorological observation network obtained from the automatic weather station (AWS) at the observation system of Meteorological elements gradient of Daman Superstation between 22 September, 2012, and 31 December, 2013. The site (100.4464° E, 38.9751° N) was located on a wetland (reed surface) in Zhangye National Wetland Park, Gansu Province. The elevation is 1460 m. The installation heights and orientations of different sensors and measured quantities were as follows: air temperature and humidity profile (HMP45AC; 5 and 10 m, north), wind speed profile (03002; 5 and 10 m, north), wind direction profile (03002; 10 m, north), air pressure (CS100; 2 m), rain gauge (TE525M; 10 m), four-component radiometer (CNR1; 6 m, south), two infrared temperature sensors (SI-111; 6 m, south, vertically downward), soil heat flux (HFP01; 3 duplicates, -0.06 m), soil temperature profile (109ss-L; 0, -0.02, -0.04, -0.1, -0.2 and -0.4 m), and four photosynthetically active radiation (PQS-1; install on 28 July, 2013, two above the plants, 6 m, south, one vertically downward and one vertically upward; two below the plants, 0.25 m, south, one vertically downward and one vertically upward). The observations included the following: air temperature and humidity (Ta_5 m and Ta_10 m; RH_5 m and RH_10 m) (℃ and %, respectively), wind speed (Ws_5 m and 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/m^2), infrared temperature (IRT_1 and IRT_2) (℃), soil heat flux (Gs_1, Gs_2, and Gs_3) (W/m^2), soil temperature (Ts_0 cm, Ts_2 cm, Ts_4 cm, Ts_10 cm, Ts_20 cm and Ts_40 cm) (℃), on the plants photosynthetically active radiation of upward and downward (PAR_U_up and PAR_U_down) (μmol/ (s m^-2)), and below the plants photosynthetically active radiation of upward and downward (PAR_D_up and PAR_D_down) (μmol/ (s m^-2)). 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. Data were missing during 10 May, 2013 and 30 May, 2013 because of datalogger malfunction; the wind speed data were missing during 1 September, 2013 and 5 September, 2013 because of sensor malfunction. 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: 2013-6-10 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.

The dataset consists of three parts: part 1, survey data of plant plots from 7 tributaries of the upper Shiyan River Basin and the Qingtu Lake in the Qilian Mountains from August 16,2018 to August 30 ,2018; part 2, survey data of plant plots in the main tributaries of Heihe River and Shule River Basins from 2018.9.25 to 2018.10.3 ; part 3, survey data of plant plots in Qinghai Lake and Heihe River Basin from August 18, 2013 to August 8, 2018. The first part involves the growth characteristics and quantity information of herbs, shrubs and trees; the second part mainly investigates trees and only gives a rough estimate of herbs; the third part mainly investigates meadow vegetation. The three-part survey sets up plots based on vegetation types, and at least 3 plots (sub-trees, shrubs, and herbs) are selected for each plot. Among them, the herbaceous aspect product is 1m×1m or 0.5m×0.5m; the desert shrub-like product is 10m×10m; the forest shrub area is 2m×2m; the shrub shrub area is 4m×4m; the arbor-like aspect product is 20m. ×20m. Plant community survey in each sample: the arbor sample survey mainly investigated the number of species, species abundance, 20 arbor trees per wooden ruler (including plant height, DBH, crown width, live branch height), within the sample The diameter of all arbor; the shrub-like method mainly investigated the species number, abundance, shrub crown and shrub plant height of all shrubs; the herb sample mainly investigated the number, degree or coverage of the herbaceous species, average plant height, total coverage, Aboveground biomass.

LAI observation was carried out for the typical underlying surface in the lower reaches of Heihe River Basin during the aviation flight experiment in 2014. The observation started on 24 July, 2014 and finished on 1 August, 2014. 1. Observation time On days of 24 July, 27 July, 30 July, 31 July and 1 August, 2014 2. Samples and observation methods Large areas with homogeneous vegetation (greater than 100 m * 100 m) were chosen as the observation samples. And forty field samples were selected according to the characteristics of vegetation distribution in the downstream. The land-use types including the cantaloupe, the Tamarix chinensis, the reeds, the weeds, the Karelinia caspica, the Sophora alopecuroides and so on. LAI data were calculated according to the transmittance derived from an A value (above-canopy readings) and four B values (below readings). More than two LAI values were obtained for each sample. At the same time, the heights of the vegetation in each sample were measured. 3. Observation instrument LAI 2200 4. Data storage The observation recorded data were stored in excel and the original LAI data were stored in txt files.

The dataset of airborne Polarimetric L-band Multibeam Radiometers (PLMR) was acquired on 30 June, 2012, located in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin. The aircraft took off at 13:10 pm (UTC+8) from Zhangye airport and landed at 18:40 pm, with the flight time of 5.5 hours. The flight was performed in the altitude of about 2500 m and at the speed of about 220-250 km during the observation, corresponding to an expected ground resolution of about 750 m. The PLMR instrument flown on a small aircraft operates at 1.413 GHz (L-band), with both H- and V-polarizations at incidence angles of ±7.5°, ±21.5° and ±38.5°. PLMR ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ calibrations were performed before and after each flight. The processed PLMR data include 2 DAT files (v-pol and h-pol separately) and 1 KMZ file for each flying day. The DAT file contains all the TB values together with their corresponding beam ID, incidence angle, location, time stamp (in UTC) and other flight attitude information as per headings. The KMZ file shows the gridded 1-km TB values corrected to 38.5 degrees together with flight lines. Cautions should be taken when using these data, as the RFI contaminations are often higher than expected at v-polarization.