This 30 minute Skin Temperature 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 Skin Temperature composite was formed from three data sources: the 10m and 25m ARM/Clouds and Radiation Testbed (CART) Multi-Filter Radiometer (MFR) 20 second data, 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 30-minute averaged values of skin temperature as provided by NOAA/ATDD for its Little Washita station and the 30-minute averaged values of skin temperature 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 10m and 25m MFR stations. UCAR/JOSS computed standard deviations for the ARM 10m and 25m MFR data when at least 15 observations were available within the 30-minute averaging interval. The ARM/GCIP NESOB-97 Skin Temperature Composite contains 8 metadata parameters and 3 data parameters. The metadata parameters describe the date/time, network, station, and location at which the data were collected. The 3 data parameters repeat once for each 30 minute period from UTC 0000 through UTC 2330. Data reported for a designated 30 minute time represents data collected during the previous 30 minute period. All times are reported in UTC, and skin temperature values are reported in degrees Celsius. Each data value is followed by a Quality Control 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". Missing values are -999.99. The standard deviation was calculated for the ARM 10m and 25m MFR Skin Temperature values when there were at least 15 measurements in the 30 minute averaging interval. No standard deviations were calculated for the Little Washita data, since it originated in 30 minute frequency. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: GeoData catalog record. File Name: Web Page, url: https://geodata.nal.usda.gov/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/f45c0d23-6589-4259-b198-28cbda6b360f