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 NESOB 1997 Daily Precipitation Composite is one of several precipitation datasets provided in the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) Near-Surface Observation Data Set (NESOB) 1997. This precipitation composite is composed of data from several sources (i.e., National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Observers, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and the daily precipitation data extracted from the NESOB 1997 Hourly Precipitation Composite). Data from these sources were quality controlled and merged to form this precipitation composite. After the datasets were merged to form the NESOB 1997 Daily Precipitation Composite, a statistics program was executed to ensure that the quality of the individual datasets had been retained. This composite contains data for the NESOB 1997 domain (approximately 94.5 W to 100.5 W longitude and 34 N to 39 N latitude) and time period (01 April 1997 through 31 March 1998). The NCEP Daily Precipitation dataset was formed by extracting incremental precipitation values. The value reported for any daily observation represents data collected during the previous 24 hours. The Daily Precipitation Composite contains six metadata parameters and four data parameters. The metadata parameters describe the station location and time at which the data were collected. The four data parameters repeat once for each day in the monthly record. Every record has 31 days reported, regardless of the actual number of days in the month. For months with less than 31 days, the extra days are reported as missing (i.e., '-999.99 7 M'). Each 24 hour precipitation value has an associated observation hour. The observation hour is the ending UTC hour for the 24 hour period for which the precipitation value is valid.