Background Information on the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Surface Network (GSN)

Over the past decade the meteorological community has witnessed an ever increasing demand for current and historical data related to extreme weather and climate events. Such data are necessary for seasonal and interannual climate prediction as well as for climate research, monitoring of climate variability and detection of climate change. The importance of these activities has been recognized on numerous occasions by governments at various meetings, in particular by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and by the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In response to these requirements from the climatological community, the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) program, established in 1992, developed the GCOS Surface Network (GSN) which consists of approximately 1,000 meteorological surface reporting stations from approximately 50 member states of the World Meteorological Organization.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is responsible for building a permanent data base of historical GSN daily and monthly data submissions, along with the appropriate station metadata history, and for providing free and open user access to this information via the World Wide Web. This site contains all of the historical daily and monthly GSN data received to date at NCDC. As more data are received they will be integrated into this system. GSN data may be obtained through the NCDC Climate Data Online (CDO) system for monthly data or through the GSN download system for daily GSN data.

More information on GCOS and GSN can be obtained from a variety of sources. How the initial selection of GSN Stations was made is described in a Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society article (PDF). The official GCOS Web Site at the World Meteorological Organization will provide links to information on the GCOS Surface Network, a current list of GSN stations (pdf), activities of the GSN Monitoring Centers, the GCOS Upper Air Network (GUAN), and GUAN data. The Global Observing System Information Center (GOSIC) web site provides information on the observing requirements, the operational data systems, and the access procedures for finding and obtaining data and products of what is known as the G³OS. The G³OS consists of GCOS, the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), and the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS). GOSIC is currently operated by the University of Delaware, with funding and support from NOAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.