We use waveform cross-correlation to analyze the recordings of eight earthquakes (2009-2018) beneath the Indian Ocean at stations from the Chinese Digital Seismic Network. We obtain 929 high quality residual traveltime differences between the phases ScS and S (Differential traveltimes.dat). We interpret variations of δt up to 10 seconds as due to horizontal shear-velocity variations in D” beneath northern India, Nepal, and southwestern China. The shear velocity can vary by as much as 7% over distances shorter than 300 km. Our observations provide additional observational evidence that compositional heterogeneity and possibly melt contribute to the seismic structure of the lower mantle characterized by long-term subduction and mantle downwelling.

The land cover dataset of Pan third pole major cities contains 14 cities (Urumqi, Xining, Lanzhou, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, Islamabad, Kabul, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Bishkek and Almaty) in 2000 / 2010 / 2017, the spatial resolution of this dataset is 30 m. It includes vegetation, cultivated land, artificial surface, water body and others. Based on globeland30, mcd12q1 and globcover2009, the consistent regions were identified and retained. The inconsistent regions were reclassified by deep learning method, and the final classification results were obtained by fusing the above regions. The data has been verified by visual interpretation. The data are applied to the study of construction land dynamics and anthropogenic influence in Pan-Third Pole cities. Data type: grid. Projection mode: UTM projection.

This data comes from the result of teleseismic data, mainly including the velocity and radial anisotropic structures beneath western Tibet. In the process of processing, bandwidth filtering is adopted, and the filtering range is 0.05-2 Hz. Due to the use of teleseismic data, the cross-correlation method is used in the acquisition process to "align" the waveform. The data quality is good, because the extracted data are all from the earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5.0 located in the global seismic catalog, and each event has an obvious take-off point. The data can be used by other seismologists to reconstruct and analyze the underground structures in this area.

Data content: Standard ring-width chronology derived from Wilson juniper shrub around the northern shore of the Nam Co Lake; May-June SZI (Standardized Moisture Anomaly Index) drought reconstruction for the Nam Co region. Time span: 1605 to 2010. Temporal resolution: Yearly. Application and prospects: Hydroclimate study on the south-central Tibetan Plateau.

Relationship between modern pollen and climate, and its representative to vegetation are the important references in explaining and reconstructing past climate and vegetation qualitatively or quantitatively. To extrct past climate and vegetation signals from fossil pollen spectrum of a lacustrine sediment, a corresponding modern pollen dataset collected from lake-sediment surface is necessary. At present, there are a few modern pollen datasets extracted from lake sediment-surface established on the Tibetan Plateau, however, the geographic gaps (e.g. the central and east Tibetan Plateau) of available sampled lakes influence the correct understanding. To ensure the even distribution of the representative lakes, we collected lake sediment-surface samples (n=117) covering the alpine meadow evenly on the east and central Tibetan Plateau, in July and August 2018. For pollen extraction, approximately 10 g (wet original sediment) per sample were sub-sampled. Pollen sample was processed by the standard acid-alkali-acid procedures followed by 7-μm-mesh sieving. More than 500 terrestrial pollen grains were counted for each sample. Pollen assemblages of the dataset from alpine meadow are dominated by Cyperaceae (mean is 68.4%, maximum is 95.9%), with other herbaceous pollen taxa as commen taxa including Poaceae (mean is 10.3%, maximum is 87.7%), Ranunculaceae (mean is 4.8%, maximum is 33.6%), Artemisia (mean is 3.7%, maximum is 24.5%), Asteraceae (mean is 2.1%, maximum is 33.6%), etc. Salix (mean is 0.4%, maximum is 5.3%) is the major shrub taxon in these pollen assemblages, while arboreal taxa occur with low percentages generally (mean of total arboreal percentages is 0.9% (maximum is 5.8%), including mainly Pinus (mean is 0.3%, maximum is 1.8%), Betula (mean is 0.1%, maximum is 0.9%) and Alnus (mean is 0.1%, maximum is 0.7%). These pollen assemblages represent the plant components well in the alpine meadow communities, although they are influenced slightly by long-distance pollen grain transported by wind or river (such as these arboreal pollen taxa). Together with pollen counts and percentages, we also provided the modern climatic data for the sampled lakes. The China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD; gridded near-surface meteorological dataset) with a temporal resolution of three hours and a spatial resolution of 0.1° was employed, and the climatic data of the nearest pixel of one sampled lake was defined to represent climatic conditions of the lake. Finally, the mean annual precipitation (Pann), mean annual temperature (Tann) and mean temperature of the coldest month (Mtco) and warmest month (Mtwa) are calculated for each sampled lake.

Agricultural irrigation consumes a large amount of available freshwater resources and is the most immediate human disturbance to the natural water cycle process, with accelerated regional water cycles accompanied by cooling effects. Therefore, estimating irrigation water use (IWU) is important for exploring the impact of human activities on the natural water cycle, quantifying water resources budget, and optimizing agricultural water management. However, the current irrigation data are mainly based on the survey statistics, which is scattered and lacks uniformity, and cannot meet the demand for estimating the spatial and temporal changes of IWU. The Global Irrigation Water Use Estimation Dataset (2011-2018) is calculated by the satellite soil moisture, precipitation, vegetation index, and meteorological data (such as incoming radiation and temperature) based on the principle of soil water balance. The framework of IWU estimation in this study coupled the remotely sensed evapotranspiration process module and the data-model fusion algorithm based on differential evolution. The IWU estimates provided from this dataset have small bias at different spatial scales (e.g., regional, state/province and national) compared to traditional discrete survey statistics, such as at Chinese provinces for 2015 (bias = −3.10 km^3), at U.S. states for 2013 (bias = −0.42 km^3), and at various FAO countries (bias = −10.84 km^3). Also, the ensemble IWU estimates show lower uncertainty compared to the results derived from individual precipitation and soil moisture satellite products. The dataset is unified using a global geographic latitude and longitude grid, with associated metadata stored in corresponding NetCDF file. The spatial resolution is about 25 km, the time resolution is monthly, and the time span is 2011-2018. This dataset will help to quantitatively assess the spatial and temporal patterns of agricultural irrigation water use during the historical period and support scientific agricultural water management.

The dataset includs borehole core lithology, altitude survey, soil thickness and slop measurement, hydrogeological survey, and hydrogeophysical survey in the Maqu catchment of the Yellow River source region in the Tibetan Plateau. The borehole lithology data is from the 2017 drilled borehole ITC_ Maqu_ 1; altitude survey was carried out using RTK in 2019; Soil thickness and slope data were collected by auger and inclinometer in 2018 and 2019; hydrogeological survey includes groundwater table depth measurements in 2018 and 2019, and aquifer test data obtained in 2019; hydrogeological survey includes Magnetic Resonance Sounding (MRS) , Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) , Transient Electromagnetic (TEM) , and magnetic susceptibility measurements. MRS and ERT surveys were conducted in 2018. TEM and magnetic susceptibility measurements were carried out in 2019.

Terrestrial actual evapotranspiration (ETa) is an important component of terrestrial ecosystems because it links the hydrological, energy, and carbon cycles. However, accurately monitoring and understanding the spatial and temporal variability of ETa over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) remains very difficult. Here, the multiyear (2000-2018) monthly ETa on the TP was estimated using the MOD16-STM model supported by datasets of soil properties, meteorological conditions, and remote sensing. The estimated ETa correlates very well with measurements from 9 flux towers, with low root mean square errors (average RMSE = 13.48 mm/month) and mean bias (average MB = 2.85 mm/month), and strong correlation coefficients (R = 0.88) and the index of agreement values (IOA = 0.92). The spatially averaged ETa of the entire TP and the eastern TP (Lon > 90°E) increased significantly, at rates of 1.34 mm/year (p < 0.05) and 2.84 mm/year (p < 0.05) from 2000 to 2018, while no pronounced trend was detected on the western TP (Lon < 90°E). The spatial distribution of ETa and its components were heterogeneous, decreasing from the southeastern to northwestern TP. ETa showed a significantly increasing trend in the eastern TP, and a significant decreasing trend throughout the year in the southwestern TP, particularly in winter and spring. Soil evaporation (Es) accounted for more than 84% of ETa and the spatial distribution of temporal trends was similar to that of ETa over the TP. The amplitudes and rates of variations in ETa were greatest in spring and summer. The multi-year averaged annual terrestrial ETa (over an area of 2444.18×103 km2) was 376.91±13.13 mm/year, equivalent to a volume of 976.52±35.7 km3/year. The average annual evapotranspirated water volume over the whole TP (including all plateau lakes, with an area of 2539.49×103 km2) was about 1028.22±37.8 km3/year. This new estimated ETa dataset is useful for investigating the hydrological impacts of land cover change and will help with better management of watershed water resources across the TP.

The dataset of of potential glacial lakes (PGLs) distribution in the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding (TPS) are vector data (. SHP). The data set contains the ID, area, perimeter, volume and elevation of each PGL. The TPS region was divided into 17 subregions based on the river basins’ borders, including 8 outflow river basins, i.e., the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, and Ob river basins, and 9 exorheic river basins, i.e., the Qiangtang, Hexi, Tarim, Qiadam, Junggar, Yili, Syr Darya, Amu Darya, and Mongolia river basins. This data is processed from theGlacier ice thickness distribution dataset (provided by Farinotti et al. (2019)). The grid difference between the initial DEM and the glacier ice thickness distribution was used to produce the DEM without glaciers. The overdeepenings were detected via two steps. First, we filled the depressions of the DEM without glaciers using a hydrology tool in the ArcGIS software. Second, using the filled DEM to subtract the DEM without glaciers, we ascertained the PGLs’ locations, areas, depths, and volumes. The quality of this data set depends on the quality of the original glacier thickness data, and the quality of the ice thickness dataset is the best of all similar data at present. The dataset of of potential glacial lakes distribution in the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings can provide a new perspective from which to understand the future formation and evolution of glacial lakes in the TPS. It is anticipated that approximately 16,000 PGLs areas of greater than 0.02 km2 will be formed in the TPS, covering an area of 2253.95 ± 1291.29 km2 and holding a water volume of 60.49 ± 28.94 km3, which would contribute to a 0.16 ± 0.08 mm equivalent sea-level rise.

Greenland digital elevation models (DEMs) are indispensable to fieldwork, ice velocity calculations, and mass change estimations. Previous DEMs have provided reasonable estimations for the entire Greenland, but the time span of applied source data may lead to mass change estimation bias. To provide a DEM with a specific time-stamp, we applied approximately 5.8×108 ICESat-2 observations from November 2018 to November 2019 to generate a new DEM, including the ice sheet and glaciers in peripheral Greenland. A spatiotemporal model fit process was performed at 500 m, 1,2, and 5 km grid cells separately, and the final DEM was posted at the modal resolution of 500 m. A total of 98% of the grids were obtained by the model fit, and the remaining DEM gaps were estimated via the ordinary Kriging interpolation method. Compared with IceBridge mission data acquired by the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) Lidar system, the ICESat-2 DEM was estimated to have a maximum median difference of -0.48 m. The performance of the grids obtained by model fit and interpolation was similar, which both agreed well with the IceBridge data. DEM uncertainty rises in regions of low latitude and high slope or roughness. Furthermore, the ICESat-2 DEM showed significant accuracy improvements compared with other altimeter-derived DEMs, and the accuracy was comparable to those derived from stereo-photogrammetry and interferometry. Overall, the ICESat-2 DEM showed excellent accuracy stability under various topographic conditions, which can provide a specific time-stamped DEM with high accuracy that will be useful to study Greenland elevation and mass balance changes.