The dataset of ground truth measurements for snow synchronizing with the airborne PHI mission was obtained in the Binggou watershed foci experimental area on Mar. 24, 2008. Observation items included: (1) Snow density, snow complex permittivity, snow volumetric moisture and snow gravimetric moisture by the Snowfork in BG-A. (2) Snow parameters as the snow surface temperature by the handheld infrared thermometer, the snow layer temperature by the probe thermometer, the snow grain size by the handheld microscope, and snow density by the aluminum case in BG-A1, BG-A2, BG-B, BG-D, BG-E and BG-F5 (three sampling units each) from 11:11-12:35 (BJT) with the airplane overpass. 64 points were selected by four groups. (3) Snow albedo by the total radiometer in BG-A. (4) The snow spectrum by ASD (Xinjiang Meteorological Administration) in BG-A11 Two files including raw data and preprocessed data were archived.

The dataset of ground truth measurement synchronizing with the airborne microwave radiometers (L&K bands) mission was obtained in L2, L4 and L5 of the A'rou foci experimental area on Mar. 19, 2008. The samples were collected every 100 m along the strip from south to north. In L2, the soil temperature, soil volumetric moisture, the loss tangent, soil conductivity, and the real part and the imaginary part of soil complex permittivity were acquired by the POGO soil sensor, the mean soil temperature from 0-5cm by the probe thermometer, and soil gravimetric moisture, volumetric moisture, and soil bulk density after drying by the cutting ring (100cm^3). In L4, the soil temperature, soil volumetric moisture, the loss tangent, soil conductivity, and the real part and the imaginary part of soil complex permittivity were acquired by the POGO soil sensor, the mean soil temperature from 0-5cm by the probe thermometer, the surface radiative temperature measured three times by the hand-held infrared thermometer, and soil gravimetric moisture, volumetric moisture, and soil bulk density after drying by the cutting ring (100cm^3). In L5, soil volumetric moisture was acquired by ML2X, the mean soil temperature from 0-5cm by the probe thermometer, and soil gravimetric moisture, volumetric moisture, and soil bulk density after drying by the cutting ring (100cm^3). Surface roughness was detailed in the "WATER: Surface roughness dataset in the A'rou foci experimental area". Besides, GPR (Ground Penetration Radar) observations were also carried out in L6 and the handheld thermal imager observations in L4. Those provide reliable ground data for retrieval and validation of soil moisture and freeze/thaw status from active remote sensing approaches.

This dataset contains the flux measurements from the Shenshawo sandy desert station eddy covariance system (EC) in the flux observation matrix from 1 June to 15 September, 2012. The site (100.49330° E, 38.78917° N) was located in a sandy desert surface, which is near Zhangye, Gansu Province. The elevation is 1594.00 m. The EC was installed at a height of 4.6 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 contains the flux measurements from the large aperture scintillometer (LAS) at Sidaoqiao Superstation (two sites) in the hydrometeorological observation network of Heihe River Basin. There were two types of LASs at site 1: German BLS900 and Netherlands Kipp&zonen. The north tower was set up with the BLS900/Kipp&zonen receiver, and the south tower was equipped with the BLS900/Kipp&zonen transmitter. The observation period of BLS900_1 and Kipp&zonen were from 11 July to 13 November, 2013, and 11 July to 12 September, 2013, respectively. There was one type of LAS at site 2: German BLS900. The north tower was set up with the BLS900 receiver, and the south tower was equipped with the BLS900 transmitter. BLS900_2 has been in use since 16 September, 2013. The Sidaoqiao Superstation (site1, north: 101.147° E, 42.005° N, south: 101.131° E, 41.987° N; site 2, north: 101.137° E, 42.008° N, south: 101.121° E, 41.990° N) was located in Ejinaqi, Inner Mongolia. The underlying surfaces between the two towers were tamarisk, populus, bare land and farmland. The elevation is 873 m. The effective height of the LASs was 25.5 m, and the path length of site 1 and site 2 were 2390 m and 2380 m, respectively. The data were sampled at 5 Hz and 1 Hz intervals for BLS900 and zzlas, respectively, and then averaged over 1 min. The raw data acquired at 1 min intervals were processed and quality controlled. The data were subsequently averaged over 30 min periods, in which sensible heat flux was iteratively calculated by combining Cn2 with meteorological data according to the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. The main quality control steps were as follows: (1) The data were rejected when Cn2 exceeded the saturated criterion (BLS900_1: Cn2>7.25E-14, Kipp&zonen: Cn2>7.84E-14, BLS900_2: Cn2>7.33E-14). (2) The data were rejected when the demodulation signal was small (BLS900: Average X Intensity<1000; Kipp&zonen: Demod>-20mv). (3) The data were rejected when collected during precipitation. (4) The data were rejected if collected at night when weak turbulence occurred (u* was less than 0.1 m/s). In the iteration process, the universal functions of Thiermann and Grassl, 1992 and Andreas, 1988 were selected for BLS900 and Kipp&zonen, respectively. Several instructions were included with the released data. (1) The data of site 1 were primarily obtained from BLS900_1 measurements, and missing flux measurements from the BLS900_1 instrument were substituted with measurements from the Kipp&zonen instrument. The missing data were denoted by -6999. The data of site 2 were obtained from BLS900_2 measurements, missing data were denoted by -6999. Due to the problems of BLS900_1 transmitter, the data after 13 November, 2013, were not collected. (2) The dataset contained the following variables: data/time (yyyy-m-d h:mm), the structural parameter of the air refractive index (Cn2, m-2/3), and the sensible heat flux (H_LAS, W/m^2). In this dataset, a time of 0:30 corresponds to the average data for the period between 0:00 and 0:30, and the data were stored in *.xls format. 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 Populus 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 (101.124° E, 41.993° N) was located in the Populus surface, Ejin Banner in Inner Mongolia. The elevation is 876 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 CF card storage problem, data during 17 September to 9 December were replaced with the 30 min output flux data in the data logger. 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.

This data set includes observation data of meteorological elements in the Shenshawo Desert Station in the middle of the Heihe Hydrometeorological Observation Network from January 1, 2015 to April 12, 2015. The site is located in Shenshawo, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, and the underlying surface is desert. The latitude and longitude of the observation point is 100.4933E, 38.7892N, and the altitude is 1594m. The air temperature and relative humidity sensors are installed at 5m and 10m, facing the north; the barometer is installed at 2m; the tipping bucket rain gauge is installed at 10m; the wind speed sensor is set at 5m, 10m, and the wind direction sensor is set at 10m, facing the north; the four-component radiometer is installed at 6m, facing south; two infrared thermometers are installed at 6m, facing south, the probe orientation is vertically downward; the soil temperature probe is buried in the ground surface 0cm and underground 2cm, 4cm, 10cm, 20cm 40cm, 60cm and 100cm, in the south of the 2m from the meteorological tower; soil moisture sensors are buried in the underground 2cm, 4cm, 10cm, 20cm, 40cm, 60cm and 100cm, in the south of the 2m from the meteorological tower, and among them a repetitive soil moisture sensor (Ms_40cm_2) was embedded in the underground 40cm on May 6, 2014.soil heat flux plates (3 pieces) are buried in the ground 6 cm in order. Observation items include: air temperature and humidity (Ta_5m, RH_5m, Ta_10m, RH_10m) (unit: centigrade, percentage), air pressure (Press) (unit: hectopascal), precipitation (Rain) (unit: mm), wind speed (WS_5m, WS_10m) (unit: m / s), wind direction (WD_10m) (unit: degree), four-component radiation (DR, UR, DLR_Cor, ULR_Cor, Rn) (unit: watts / square meter), surface radiation temperature (IRT_1, IRT_2 ) (unit: centigrade), soil heat flux (Gs_1, Gs_2, Gs_3) (unit: watts/square meter), soil moisture (Ms_2cm, Ms_4cm, Ms_10cm, Ms_20cm, Ms_40cm, Ms_60cm, Ms_100cm) (unit: volumetric water content, percentage) and soil temperature (Ts_0cm, Ts_2cm, Ts_4cm, Ts_10cm, Ts_20cm, Ts_40cm, Ts_60cm, Ts_100cm) (unit: centigrade). Processing and quality control of the observation data: (1) ensure 144 data per day (every 10 minutes), when there is missing data, it is marked by -6999; From March 19, 2015 to March 26, due to the collector problem, the data is missing; (2) eliminate the moment with duplicate records; (3) delete the data that is obviously beyond the physical meaning or the range of the instrument; (5) the format of date and time is uniform, and the date and time are in the same column. For example, the time is: 2015-6-10 10:30; (6) the naming rules are: AWS+ site name. The station was dismantled after April 12. For hydrometeorological network or site information, please refer to Li et al. (2013). For observation data processing, please refer to Liu et al. (2011).

On 30 June 2012 (UTC+8), TASI sensor carried by the Harbin Y-12 aircraft was used in a visible near Infrared hyperspectral airborne remote sensing experiment, which is located in the observation experimental area (30×30 km). The relative flight altitude is 2500 meters. Land surface temperature product was obtained at a resolution of 3 m using a modified temperature/emissivity separation algorithm based on TASI surface radiance data. The product were validated with in situ ground measurements. The validation results indicated that the Land surface temperature product agreed with the ground LSTs well with RMSE lower than 1.5 K.

The dataset of snow properties measured by the Snowfork was obtained in the Binggou watershed foci experimental area from Mar. 10 to 30, 2008, in cooperation with simultaneous airborne, satellite-borne and ground-based remote sensing experiments and other control experiments. Observation items included (1) physical quantities by direct observations: resonant frequency, the rate of attenuation and 3db bandwidth; (2) physical quantities by indirect observations: snow density, snow complex permittivity (the real part and the imaginary part), snow volumetric moisture and snow gravimetric moisture. 13 files are archived, and the user guide of the sampling plot and observation background is included too.

The No. 1 hydrological section is located at 213 Heihe River Bridge (100.345° E, 38.912° N, 1546 m) in the midstream of the Heihe River Basin, Zhangye city, Gansu Province. The dataset contains observations recorded by the No.1 hydrological section from 13 June, 2012, to 6 September, 2013. This section consists of two river sections, i.e., the east section,which is denoted as No. 1 and the west section, which is denoted as No. 2. The width of this section is 330 meters and consists of a gravel bed; the cross-sectional area is unstable because of human factors. The water level was measured using an SR50 ultrasonic range and the discharge was measured using cross-section reconnaissance by the StreamPro ADCP. The dataset includes the following parameters: water level (recorded every 30 minutes) and discharge. The missing and incorrect (outside the normal range) data were replaced with -6999. For more information, please refer to Li et al. (2013) (for hydrometeorological observation network or sites information), He et al. (2016) (for data processing) in the Citation section.

The dataset of soil temperature profile (5cm, 10cm, 15cm and 20cm) observations was obtained in the Yingke oasis and Huazhaizi desert steppe foci experimental areas from May 27 to Jul. 13, 2008. Diurnal observations were carried out in the bare land near No. 5 building of the resort at 6:00 and 12:00 from May 27 to Jun. 14, and in Yingke oasis No. 4 plot at 10:00 from Jun. 15 to Jul. 13. Besides, intensive observations were carried out at an interval of one hour from 6:00 on Jun. 2 to 6:00 on 3, 2008.

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.