The Southern Great Plains 1997 (SGP97) Hydrology Experiment originated from an interdisciplinary investigation, "Soil Moisture Mapping at Satellite Temporal and Spatial Scales" (PI: Thomas J. Jackson, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD) selected under the NASA Research Announcement 95-MTPE-03. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Evaporation Dataset is one of several surface datasets provided for the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) Near Surface Observation Data Set (NESOB) 1997 project. This dataset was formed by extracting evaporation data from the GCIP/Enhanced Seasonal Observing Period 1997 (GCIP/ESOP-97) NCDC Summary of the Day Co-operative Dataset (TD-3200) for the NESOB 1997 area and time of interest. This NCDC Evaporation Dataset contains data from approximately 14 stations reporting evaporation data for the NESOB 1997 time period (01 April 1997 through 31 March 1998, and in the NESOB 1997 domain (approximately 94.5W to 100.5W longitude and 34N to 39N latitude). The NCDC Evaporation Dataset contains seven metadata parameters and sixteen data parameters and flags. The metadata parameters describe the date, network, station and location at which the data were collected. Data values are valid for the 24 hours preceding the time of observation, and all times are UTC. The evaporation and temperature parameters are not reported when the temperature is below freezing. The data parameters have two associated NCDC Quality Control (QC) Flags. The NCDC Evaporation Dataset hour of observation varies by station. Quality Control for this data was provided by NCDC. No additional QC was performed by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS) on this dataset.