The international surface temperature initiative's global land surface databank

Abstract

The International Surface Temperature Initiative (ISTI) consists of an end-to-end process for land surface air temperature analyses. The foundation is the establishment of a global land surface Databank. This builds upon the groundbreaking efforts of scientists in the 1980s and 1990s. While using many of their principles, a primary aim is to improve aspects including data provenance, version control, openness and transparency, temporal and spatial coverage, and improved methods for merging disparate sources. The initial focus is on daily and monthly timescales. A Databank Working Group is focused on establishing Stage-0 (original observation forms) through Stage-3 data (merged dataset without quality control). More than 35 sources of data have already been added and efforts have now turned to development of the initial version of the merged dataset. Methods have been established for ensuring to the extent possible the provenance of all data from the point of observation through all intermediate steps to final archive and access. Databank submission procedures were designed to make the process of contributing data as easy as possible. All data are provided openly and without charge. We encourage the use of these data and feedback from interested users.