On 1 August 2012, Wide-angle Infrared Dual-mode line/area Array Scanner (WIDAS) carried by the Harbin Y-12 aircraft was used in a visible near Infrared thermal Dual-mode airborne remote sensing experiment, which is located in the artificial oasis eco-hydrology experimental area. WIDAS includes a CCD camera with a spatial of resolution 0.08 m, a visible near Infrared multispectral camera with five bands scanner (an maximum observation angle 48° and spatial resolution 0.4 m), and a thermal image camera with a spatial resolution of 2 m. The CCD camera data are recorded in DN values processed by mosaic and orthorectification.

The dataset of PR2 soil moisture profile observations (10cm, 20cm, 30cm, 40cm, 60cm and 100cm) was obtained in the Linze grassland foci experimental area. The sample points, with various underlying surface and depth were measured by PR2 probe in PR2 quadrate (3Grid×3Grid, 90m×90m) and PR2 line. Observations were carried out from May 31 to Jul. 13, 2008 with exceptions on Jun. 6, 8, 10, 13, 21, 27, 28, 29, Jul. 3 and 12. Data were archived in Excel and Word file. See WATER: Dataset of setting of the sampling plots and stripes in the foci experimental area of Linze station for more information.

The No. 6 hydrological section is located at Ban Heihe River Bridge (39°15′32.41″ N，100°16′33.95″ E, 1398 m a.s.l.) in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin, Zhangye, Gansu Province. The dataset contains observations from the No.6 hydrological section from 19 June, 2012, to 10 August, 2012. The width of this section is 270 meters. The water level was measured using HOBO pressure range and the discharge was measured using cross-section reconnaissance by the StreamPro ADCP. The dataset includes the following sections: Water level (recorded every 30 minutes) and Discharge. The data processing and quality control steps were as follows: 1) The water level data which collected from the hydrological station were averaged over intervals of 10 min for a total of 144 records per day. The missing data were denoted by -6999. 2) Data out the normal range records were rejected. 3) Unphysical data were rejected. For more information, please refer to Liu et al. (2016) (for multi-scale observation experiment or sites information), He et al. (2016) (for data processing) in the Citation section.

On 10 July 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.

This is the LAINet dataset measured in the corn field at the Xiaoman irrigation district (from 25 June, to 24 August, 2012). The time used in this dataset is in UTC+8 Time. Instrument: LAINet- A wireless sensor network for leaf area index measurement, Beijing Normal University Measurement Mode: LAINet observation system is formed by 3 kinds of sensor nodes, they are respectively (1) node below the canopy, sensors up-looking are used for measure the transmitted radiation through the canopy, which are deployed horizontally; (2) node above canopy: sensors up-looking are used for measure the total sun incident radiation, which are deployed horizontally; (3) sink or router node, which is designed for receiving and transmitting data measured by the above node and below node. Data Processing: the original data obtained from sensors is received by sink nodes, and forms the original dataset in days after pre-processed. The observation for transmittance of the canopy is acquired by calculating the ratio of the radiation through the canopy and the total incident radiation above the canopy at different sun elevation angles during a day. The retrieval of LAI is based on the multi-angle transmittance data. LAINet dataset is composed of original LAI data, LAI data after calculating the mean value in 5 days interval and the longitude and latitude of the measurement nodes. All the data are stored in the format of Excel. As for the data after calculating the mean value in 5 days, we take the number of aggregation nodes as the name of the sheet. Data saved in a sheet is from an sink node which receives the measurement data from the child nodes. The original data records the LAI of every node in the observation day. In the sheet of two kinds of data above, the meaning of the column is as follows: DOY, node one, node two, …, and node N.

This dataset contains the flux measurements from the large aperture scintillometer (LAS) at A’rou Superstation in the hydrometeorological observation network of Heihe River Basin between 14 October, 2012, and 31 December, 2013. There were two types of LASs at A’rou Superstation: German BLS450 and China zzlas. The north tower was set up with the zzlas receiver and the BLS450 transmitter, and the south tower was equipped with the zzlas transmitter and the BLS450 receiver. Zzlas has been in use since 14 October, 2012, and the observation period of BLS450 was from 9 August to 10 December, 2013. The site (north: 100.467° E, 38.050° N; south: 100.450° E, 38.033° N) was located in Caodaban village of A’rou town in Qilian county, Qinghai Province. The underlying surface between the two towers was alpine meadow. The elevation is 3033 m. The effective height of the LASs was 9.5 m, and the path length was 2390 m. The data were sampled at 5 Hz and 1 Hz intervals for BLS450 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 (BLS450: Cn2>7.25E-14, zzlas: Cn2>7.84E-14). (2) The data were rejected when the demodulation signal was small (BLS450: Average X Intensity<1000; zzlas: Demod>-20 mv). (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 BLS450 and zzlas, respectively. Several instructions were included with the released data. (1) The data were primarily obtained from BLS450 measurements, and missing flux measurements from the BLS450 instrument were substituted with measurements from the zzlas instrument. The missing data were denoted by -6999. Due to the drift of the zzlas signal, data from 10 November to 23 November, 2012, and 14 March to 10 April, 2013, were excluded. Due to the LAS tower’s lean, the data from 10 April to 31 May, 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 mesurement aims to obtain the wind direction, wind speed, and disturbance characteristics of the lower atmosphere. The observation period is from 25 June to 17 Septemper, 2012 (UTC+8). Measurement instruments: Germany Scintec MFAS Flat Array Sodar Measurement position: 60 meters northwest of Daman Super Station Measurement period: 25 June to 17 Septemper, 2012. 24 hours of uninterrupted obeservation. Automatically Recorded Data every half hour. Data contents: We obtain one data file every day. The data contents include observation height, wind speed, wind direction, wind speed in east – west direction, wind speed in south – north direction, vertical wind speed, standard deviation of vertical wind speed, backscatter intensity. Remarks: The prectical obsevation height changes with the air water vapor content. Our obsevation point is located in the arid region. The air water vapor content is very low. Therefore the maximum obsevation height is about 300 meters. When it rains or very windy and dusty, the backscatter intensity is very high. Then the data would be miss or only has the vertical wind speed and backscatter intensity.

The dataset of surface roughness measurements was obtained in the reed plot A, the saline plots B and C of the Linze grassland foci experimental area on Jun. 7, 18 and 25, 2008. All the quadrates were divided into 4×4 subsites, with each one spanning a 120×120 m2 plot. With the roughness plate 110cm long and the measuring points distance 1cm, the samples were collected from south to north and from east to west, respectively. The coordinates of the sample would be got with the help of ArcView; and after geometric correction, surface height standard deviation (cm) and correlation length (cm) could be acquired based on the formula listed on pages 234-236, Microwave Remote Sensing, Vol. II. The original photos of each sampling point, surface height standard deviation (cm) and correlation length (cm) were included this dataset. The roughness data were initialized with the sample name, which was followed by the serial number, the name of the file, standard deviation and correlation length. Each .txt file is matched with one sample photo and standard deviation and correlation length represent the roughness. In addition, the length of 101 needles is also included for further checking.

The No. 1 hydrological section is located at 213 Heihe River Bridge (38°54′43.55″ N, 100° 20′41.05″ E, 1546 m a.s.l.) in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin, Zhangye, Gansu Province. The dataset contains observations from the No.1 hydrological section from 13 June, 2012, to 24 November, 2012. This section consists of two river sections, i.e., the east section is marked as No. 1 and the west section is marked as No. 2. The width of this section is 330 meters. This section consists of a gravel bed; the cross-sectional area is unstable because of human factors. The water level was measured using SR50 ultrasonic range and the discharge was measured using cross-section reconnaissance by the StreamPro ADCP. The dataset includes the following sections: Water level (recorded every 30 minutes) and Discharge. The data processing and quality control steps were as follows: 1) The water level data which collected from the hydrological station were averaged over intervals of 10 min for a total of 144 records per day. The missing data were denoted by -6999. 2) Data out the normal range records were rejected. 3) Unphysical data were rejected. For more information, please refer to Liu et al. (2016) (for multi-scale observation experiment or sites information), He et al. (2016) (for data processing) in the Citation section.

This dataset contains the flux measurements from site No.14 eddy covariance system (EC) in the flux observation matrix from 30 May to 21 September, 2012. The site (100.35310° E, 38.85867° N) was located in a cropland (maize surface) in Yingke irrigation district, which is near Zhangye, Gansu Province. The elevation is 1570.23 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.

On 4 July 2012 (UTC+8), a TASI sensor boarded on the Y-12 aircraft was used to obtain the thermal-infrared hyperspectral image, which is located in the observation experimental area, Linze region and Heihe riverway. The relative flight altitude is 1000 meters. The wavelength of TASI is 8-11.5 μm with a spatial resolution of 3 meters. Through the ground sample points and atmospheric data, the data are recorded in surface radiance processed by geometric correction and atmospheric correction. Land surface temperature (LST) data was retrieved by temperature/emissivity separation algorithm.

First, Data Description The data includes stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope data of snow melt water, river water and soil water from July 2013 to April 2014. Second, Sampling Sites The snowmelt water sampling point is located in the middle of the third area, with a latitude and longitude of 99°53′28.004′′E, 38°13′25.781′′N, and the number of acquisitions is 3 times; The river water sampling point is located at the exit of the Hulugou Basin, with a latitude and longitude of 99°52′47.7′′E, 38°16′11′′N, and the sampling frequency is once a week; The soil water sampling point is located in the middle and lower part of the Hongnigou catchment area, with a sampling depth of 90cm and 180cm underground, and a latitude and longitude of 99°52'25.98′′E, 38°15′36.11′′N. Third, Testing Method The samples were measured by L2130-i ultra-high precision liquid water and water vapor isotope analyzer.