This 30 minute Net Radiation and Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) Composite is one of several surface-layer data sets provided in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement(ARM)/Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) Near Surface Observation Data Set - 1997 (NESOB-97). This radiation composite was formed from three data sources: net radiation derived from the Solar and Infrared Radiation Observing System (SIROS) 20 second data of Upwelling and Downwelling Longwave and Shortwave Irradiance; net radiation derived from the Solar Infrared Station (SIRS) 20 second data of Upwelling and Downwelling Longwave and Shortwave Irradiance; and 30 minute data from the GCIP National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD) Little Washita, Oklahoma long term flux monitoring site. This composite was developed by the merging of the computed 30-minute averaged values of Net Radiation as derived by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS) from the 20-second values provided by ARM for its SIROS and SIRS stations, and the 30-minute averaged values of Incoming/Outgoing PAR and Net Radiation as provided by NOAA/ATDD for its Little Washita station. UCAR/JOSS computed standard deviations for the averaged data when at least 15 observations were available within the 30-minute averaging interval. JOSS did not do any other quality control on the data set. The NESOB-97 Net Radiation and PAR Composite Dataset contains eight metadata parameters and nine data parameters and flags. The metadata parameters describe the date, time, network, station and location at which the data were collected. Data values are valid for the 30 minutes preceeding the time of observation. All times are UTC. The data parameters have an associated QC flag but UCAR/JOSS does not Quality Control the data at the present time. The Quality Control flag is set to "U" for "Unchecked", unless the datum is missing, in which case the flag is set to "M". Note that the SIROS stations were changed over to SIRS in August 1997.